
Book Vl^D-J 




Sngraveilj- 




^^ ^/y^^ 



MEMORIAL 



OF 



JAMES A. VAI DYKE, 



PUBLISHED BY THE 



EIRE DEPARTMENT 



Of the City of Detroit. 



FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION. 



DETEOIT: 

PRINTED BY W. F. STOREY, FREE PRESS OFFICE, 

50 Griswold Street. 

1856. 



6 4^ 






IN MEMOEIAM 

JAMES ADAMS YAN DYKE. 



To live in the hearts of those he loved, was his 
choicest wish whose memory this volume cherishes. 
If it helps to that end, it will have fulfilled its purpose. 
Its aim is not to chronicle his professional success, 
which was great, nor to elaborate his prosperity, which 
was remarkable, nor to extol his genius, which was 
marked and singular ; but to refresh in the minds of 
his friends, a recollection of qualities, of which, while 
he lived, they required not to be reminded. 

The chief attribute of his heart was affection, of his 
mind, love of the ideal and beautiful, of his manners, 
gentleness. With these, coexisted power, strength of 
will, purpose, energy, industry and enterprise. These 
were all characterized in his person, beaming from his 
eye and lip, redundant in his form and motion. So 
full development of poetic faculty and appreciation 
rarely lives with rugged talent ; but in him they dwelt 



IN" MEMOKIAM JAMES A. VAN DYKE. 



together, without sacrifice of efficacy to the one, or of 
beauty to the other. He was a blossomed tree, full of 
fruit. The arrows of his strength were feathered by 
his genius. Amid such rival elements, so intense, so 
affluent, the duties of taste and judgment were con- 
stant and exacting; but those duties were fulfilled, 
and the words of the writer and speaker were mellowed 
to a degree which stopped short of gorgeousness in 
style, and exaggeration of sentiment. 

Faculties so exact, rapid and intuitive, did not re- 
quire the aid of thorough mental discipline. They 
accomplished the object desired, achieved success, and 
did for their possessor, all which the most thorough 
obedience to arbitrary rules could have effected. Intel- 
lect furnished her own laws to him. 

So endowed ; and principled as nobly as he was 
richly gifted, his career at the bar was a series of 
brilliant successes. 

Studying men, not less than books, he was enabled 
to read them in their various relations of judges, jurors, 
parties, and witnesses, with entire accuracy, and to 
guide their reason to his own conclusions. 

A keen and pure relish for the pleasant things of 
life, intense domestic love, and the honest pride of the 
head of family, spurred within him a desire for acqui- 
sition, which never degenerated into parsimony, nor 
was allowed upon any inducement, to encroach upon 



IN MEMOEIAM JAMES A. VAN DYKE. 



the rights of others. High honor, and the most scru- 
pulous regard for the pledged word, stood sleepless 
sentinels over it. 

Throughout life he exercised the most disinterested 
liberality where his affections were involved. For 
those he loved, (not speaking alone of his family and 
relatives) he could not do too much. His purse was 
open, and his influence and exertions were still more 
efficacious in their behalf. 

His public spirit was pervading. His anxiety was 
not that some local or special object might flourish, but 
that the whole city might be relieved or benefited. 
When he moved, all moved with him, and for that 
reason it is not invidious to say that the city met with 
a loss in his death which cannot be supplied — and if 
it be invidious, it is none the less true, because there 
are few men with the same power of accomplishment, 
experience, influence, means, and willingness to labor 
for her benefit. With him to attempt was to do. 

To the Fire Department of Detroit his memory will 
remain a sweet legacy. For their elevation and ad- 
vancement, he devoted years of his best days, without 
reward, except that reward which he reaped from 
witnessing their success. It is not for them to grieve, 
as the city may and should grieve at his death. He 
had made their interests his own, until he had done for 
them all which they could reasonably ask, and now, 



IN MEMORIAM JAMES A. VAN DYEE. 



when their memory takes its flight backward, to re- 
fresh itself by a contemplation of the many delightful 
hours of intercourse with him, that recollection will 
arise upon them as a sentiment of gratitude, as to one 
who had conferred upon them strength, position, inde- 
pendence and respect, and who dying had left them to 
enjoy, and dignify, and appreciate those gifts. Should 
its members continue to hold him in their hearts and 
memories until that hour when the immortal shall put 
off its mortality, they will do no more than he did, for 
in naming his pall-bearers, within a few hours of his 
death, he gave most unerring testimony that they 
dwelt with him, even unto the end. 

James A. Van Dyke was the eldest son of William 
Yan Dyke, a native of Pennsylvania, who resides at 
Locust Grove, near Mercers burg, Franklin county, 
about sixteen miles from the north line of Maryland. 
His mother was Nancy Duncan, a native of Cumber- 
land county, Pa. These parents had six children, of 
whom Lambert lives at Clarksville, Red Hun county, 
Texas, Ellen the only daughter lives in Pennsylvania, 
William R. lives with or near his father, John H. is a 
lawyer at Milwaukee, and Samuel W. lives in Wiscon- 
sin, twenty-eight miles west of Milwaukee. 

The subject of this memorial commenced his educa- 
tion under private tutors at Mercersburg, and was thus 
fitted for Madison College, which he entered in 1828. 



m MEMOEIAM JAMES A. VAN DYKE. 



At College he was a decided favorite with the faculty, 
and was popular also with his fellow students. He 
was studious and exemplary, carrying out in his de- 
portment and bearing, the strict inculcations which he 
had received from his parents, at the fire-side. 

After leaving College, he commenced the study of 
the law, with Hon. George Chambers, at Chambers- 
burg, where he remained one year. He then went to 
Hagerstown, Md., where he continued to prosecute his 
legal studies, under the direction of Hon. William Price, 
now of Cumberland, whose name will be recalled to 
many by a recollection of the circumstances of his duel 
with Frank Thomas. After the completion of his law 
studies, Mr. Van Dyke went to Baltimore to enjoy the 
opportunity of attending upon the Gourts, and remained 
there some months. In the month of December, 1834, 
he left home intending to settle in Pittsburg, but dis- 
liking the place, determined to go further west, and 
being undecided whether to choose St. Louis or Detroit, 
finally resolved to be governed by accident — the start- 
ing of the public conveyance. Having reached Detroit, 
Mr. Van Dyke entered the office of Hon. A. D. Frazer, 
to whom he had letters, and at the end of six months, 
that term of residence being required by law, he was 
admitted to the bar. 

From the very outset of his career, Mr. Yan Dyke 
devoted himself with the utmost assiduity to his pro- 



8 m MEMOEIAM JAMES A. VAN DYKE. 

fession. It was the calling of his choice, and his pecu- 
liar and rich gifts rendered him entirely fit to pursue 
its higher, more honorable, and more distinguished 
walks. 

During the year 1835, he associated himself in prac- 
tice with the late Hon. Charles W, Whipple, and re- 
mained in that connection until about the time of the 
appointment of that gentleman to the bench of the 
Supreme Court, in 1838. In the course of the first 
few months of his residence in Detroit, he became at- 
tached to Miss Elizabeth Desnoyers, daughter of the 
late Hon. Peter J. Desnoyers, and was married to that 
lady in December, 1835. This union proved to both 
a source of the highest and most uninterrupted 
domestic happiness, and was blessed by the birth of 
eleven children, eight of whom now survive. Mrs. 
Van Dyke possesses all the tenderness and natural 
refinement of heart, all the deep and pure affection, the 
steadfastness of character, and the strength of principle, 
necessary to attract and retain the love, as well as the 
esteem of such a husband. No shadow ever passed 
between them. No domestic joy in which both did 
not partake, no sorrow which did not dim the eyes of 
both with tears. 

Soon after the elevation of Judge Whipple to the 
bench, Mr. Van Dyke formed a copartnership with 
E. B. Harrington, Esq., which continued up to the time 



IN MEHORIAM JAMES A. VAN DYKE. 



of the death of that gentleman, in August, 1844, soon 
after which he entered into a copartnership with H. 
H. Emmons, Esq., which relation subsisted until both 
of these gentlemen, for the most part left the general 
active practice of the law, in the year 1852, when Mr. 
Van Dyke became the attorney of the Michigan Cen- 
tral Railroad, Mr. Emmons, very soon after, taking up 
that relation to the Michigan Southern and Northern 
Indiana Railroad. In the year 1840, Mr. Van Dyke 
was appointed prosecuting attorney of the county of 
Wayne, and established a new era in the efficacy, en- 
ergy, and success with which he conducted the crimi- 
nal prosecutions, and cleared the city and county of 
numerous and flagrant criminals. During the contin- 
uance of Mr. Yan Dyke in this office, he kept up the 
same vigilance, and exercised the same indefatigable 
determination, in the prosecution of crime. At the 
annual charter election in March, 1843, Mr. Yan Dyke 
was elected an alderman from the third ward of the 
city of Detroit, an office which he dignified and made 
useful to the city, by the manner in which he filled the 
station of chairman of the Committee of Ways and 
Means. The city was then hopelessly in debt, its credit 
was nearly ruined, its interest unpaid, and its creditors 
importunate. At this crisis Mr. Yan Dyke stepped 
forward, and with great personal sacrifice, devoted the 
better portion of two years of time to the explication 



10 IN MEMOEIAM JAMES A. VAN DYKE. 

of the city finances, bringing order out of confusion, 
and substituting faith, credit and solvency, for repudia- 
tion, bankruptcy and financial disgrace. His subsequent . 
election as Mayor of the city, which took place in 
March, 1847 3 enabled him to perfect the system of re- 
cuperation, so well commenced, and to mature perma- 
nent plans for the future credit, solvency and prosperity 
of the city. 

Mr. Yan Dyke was an active and influential mem- 
ber of the present Board of Commissioners of the 
Detroit Water Works, having been appointed when 
the present organization was made, and in that capa- 
city also, he evinced that leading principle of his life, 
to take hold of nothing — to assume no responsibility 
which he did not redeem by the most faithful and 
energetic application to its details and management. 

Mr. Yan Dyke was a working fireman from the time 
of his arrival in Detroit. He became a member of 
Protection No. 1 very soon after reaching Detroit, and 
served out his seven years at the brakes. He was 
chosen President of the Department in January, 1847, 
and was re-chosen in 1848, 1849, 1850 and 1851. 

To his financial tact, energy and determination, 
no less than to his deep regard for the Depart- 
ment, and his pride in its success and advancement, 
the firemen of Detroit are mainly indebted for the pos- 
session of a hall which is an ornament to the city. 



IN - MEMORIAM JAMES A. VAN DYKE. 11 

In this brief sketch we shall make no attempt to 
present in detail the course of Mr. Yan Dyke's public 
or professional life, it is sufficient for our design, and 
for the purpose for which it is intended, that we recall 
the leading traits of the deceased, his social qualities, 
and his civic virtues, in such terms as shall serve to 
keep them fresh in the recollection of those who in 
life enjoyed the choice and valuable privilege of grasp- 
ing his hand in confidence, and of calling him — -friend. 

Among all such, and throughout the State of Michi- 
gan they were not few, it is believed that none will be 
found who will not join in bearing testimony of his 
private, his professional and his public life, 

" JSfon tetigit quod non ornavitP 

While prosecuting his legal studies, Mr. Yan Dyke 
gained remarkable notoriety as a ready and powerful 
debater, and displayed, from the very first, a marked 
taste for public speaking. 

The old walls of the homestead — the little chamber 
which he called his own, when a boy, are silent wit- 
nesses of the enthusiasm for art, which lived within 
him. Later in life, when prosperity and self-achieved 
success had enabled him to decorate the walls of his 
mansion with the choice efforts of Italian masters, that 
rich display, in which he took unwearied delight, and 
upon which his eye rested with daily satisfaction, was 



12 IN MEMORIAM JAMES A. VAN DYKE. 

but the bloom, of which the bud showed itself in the 
rude engravings with which his boyish hands decked 
the walls of his home. 

He was slender and delicate as a youth, averse to 
boisterous sports, to hunting, to feats of strength, and to 
all boyish pastimes. He delighted in poetry, solitude, 
nature, and art. 

His depth of feeling, his strong natural affection, 
and the striking similarity which subsisted between 
himself and his mother, rendered the tie between 
them peculiarly close and tender. Although he rever- 
enced and obeyed his father, yet the natural austerity 
of the paternal manner, and the rigid notions of the 
past generation, served to draw him to a mother, whom 
he resembled not less in person than in tenderness of 
heart and depth of feeling. 

Mr. Van Dyke possessed one of those rare natures, 
which never grow old. His young associations were 
as fresh in him as were the emotions of the hour. He 
never returned to the place of his birth without renew- 
ing his acquaintance with every person and place which 
filled his memory. His old teachers, the old servants, 
the nooks in which he was wont to study, or to wander 
by himself, the family pew, the school room, the lawyer 
with whom he studied, the school-friends, were all 
visited, all enjoyed alike, and none forgotten. 

The association of power, with such qualities of 



IN MEMORIAM JAMES A. VAN DYKE. 13 

heart, never failed to attract, and to attach. It is 
almost needless to say that he had many friends, and 
entirely so to add that when once drawn to him, they 
could not be dissevered. Envy, detraction and malice 
might have tried their efforts in vain, to sever from 
him a single heart which he had accepted in friendship 
and intimacy. His was a nature against which stran- 
gers might be easily arrayed, but from which friends 
could not be driven. 

His powers were of the rapidest use, and of the 
readiest adaptation. He was not to be caught napping, 
nor was he ever dismayed at the most formidable array 
of opposition. Just previous to his admission to the 
bar, he was employed in the office of Mr. Price, in pre- 
paring an important cause for trial. On the day of 
his admission, and as soon as he had taken the oath, 
Mr. Price arose, and without previous information to 
Mr. Van Dyke, informed the Court and opposing coun- 
sel, that he was about to leave town upon urgent busi- 
ness, and that he had left the case — naming it — in the 
hands of Mr. Van Dyke to try, and then walked coolly 
out of Court. It is enough to say that the young 
lawyer tried his first cause under those circumstances, 
and won it. This anecdote, which is authentic, and 
which was related to the writer since Mr. Van Dyke's 
death, by a lawyer conversant with the facts, proves 
that the estimate placed upon his talents, by the saga- 



14: IN MEMOEIAM JAMES A. VAN DYKE. 

cious barrister of Hagerstown, was not a mistaken one. 
Upon a recollection of the qualities and capacities of 
the deceased, whether we regard him professionally, as 
the brilliant, honorable and successful practitioner, as 
the earnest worker for the welfare of the city, as the 
leader in the Common Council, or as the civic head of 
the corporation ; as the benefactor of the Fire Depart- 
ment, as the social, hospitable, generous associate, as 
the upright and high-toned citizen, or in the more rare 
and choice relation of a close and intimate friend, it is 
impossible to look back upon his memory without being 
ready to feel and confess how deeply our community 
suffered in his untimely death. In the order of nature, 
and especially with a robust conformation like his, it 
was not unreasonable to look forward to thirty years 
of usefulness and activity, but fate had otherwise 
ordained it. 

" Like other tyrants, death delights to smite, 

What, smitten, most proclaims the pride of power 

And arbitrary nod. His Joy supreme, 

To bid the wretch survive the fortunate, 

The feeble wrap the athletic in his shroud, 

And weeping fathers build their children's tomb.'* 

He has gone. The soft breezes of summer have 
played around his grave, dreary winter has frowned 
above it, spring has returned to it, with her show- 
ers and sunshine ; yet the memory of him who lies 



m MEHOKIAM JAMES A. VAN DYKE. 15 

beneath that turf, lives in freshness in many hearts 
where his pleasant smile and his kind acts planted 
it — it is tear-watered and will not fade. For those 
who hold the deceased in their hearts, it is pleasant to 
reflect, that there are not wanting, faithful memorials 
which speak of his presence. The walls of the hall 
whose chaste proportions grew to splendor under his 
guardian eye and bounteous hand, wear a graphic token 
of his living being, the loved ones around his hearth, 
cherish their symbol of his presence, first, among the 
rich works of art which he brought together from other 
climes, his associates call up fresh recollections, in their 
own memento, and many a heart, which beat joyously 
at his footstep, which rejoiced in his smile and met his 
cordial grasp with pleasure, will turn to this volume, 
against the title page of which, through the generosity 
of those who loved him, the pencil and the burin have 
vied with each other in reproducing their dear friend, 
as he was wont to stand before them, while in life. 

His early death taught a deep moral lesson, of which 
the hour and circumstances of his burial formed no 
inappropriate type. It was a bright, balmy May morn- 
ing, when he passed from among dancing leaves, ver- 
dure and the singing of birds, into the damp, unsightly 
grave. The blue waves of the sweet St. Clair cresting 
themselves in the fresh breeze, dashed joyously on, the 
swift, stately, silent panorama of life moved by upon 



16 IN MEMORIAM JAMES A. VAN DYKE. 

its bosom, and from around his bier, as a last touching 
testimonial of his living tastes, # there arose a strain of 
harmony, so rich, so sweet, so pure, that it seemed 
breathed from heaven to grace the scene. Thus ended 
his career, in the midst of his brightest hours, while 
its sun was yet undimmed, and when its richest and 
loveliest flowers were in their undiminished bloom; 
while the zest for the highest human enjoyments were 
yet unpalled by age ; while affluence endowed, taste 
chastened, and friendship sanctified the hours of an 
existence yet in its spring. How close, how humilia- 
ting the lesson which such an open grave teaches ! 
Talent, genius, effort and public virtue can achieve 
honor, wealth and comfort ; they can attach friends, 
ensure respect and confer power ; but to arrest death 
for a single hour, even when the incentives to live are 
the strongest — they are impotent ! 

Let our feet seek his tomb, and there, while we re- 
flect upon the pleasant passages of life in which we 
have had a mutual share with him who lies slumber- 
ing below, let us not seek to repress the tear which is 
due to the chastened hearts of those who mourn him 
as a husband, a father, a son and a brother, nor let us 
turn thence without a silent prayer that the example 
of his steadfastness, honor, fidelity, generosity and true 
friendship, may abide with us as incentives to higher 



* Dodworth's Cornet Band performed a beautiful dirge at the grave. 



IN MEMORIAM JAMES A. VAN DYKE. 17 

effort, and to loftier aims of life. Of all which he 
struggled to attain, — of all which he sought to avoid, 
let his grave be to us a solemn inculcation. 

" To youth, to age, alike his tablet pale 
Tells the brief moral of its tragic tale. 
Art thou a parent? Reverence his bier, 
The parent's fondest hopes lie buried there. 
Art thou a youth, prepared on life to start, 
"With opening talents and a generous heart, 
Fair hopes and flattering prospects, all thine own? 
Lo! his, their end — a monumental stone." 



EULOGY 

ON THE LATE 

HON. JAMES ADAMS YAN DYKE, 

PRONOUNCED BEFORE THE 

FIRE DEPARTMENT 

Of the City of Detroit, at their request, on the 10th of May, 1855, 
in Firemen's Hall, * 

By D. BETHUNE DUFFIEiLD, Esa. 



Fellow Members of the Flee Department, 

It is as your appointed mouth-piece only, in the 
heavy sorrow of this day, that I speak. The human 
heart, when its emotions are swelling upward from the 
deep springs of a wounded spirit, like the crystal fount 
of the forest, when the rising stream gushes over its 
rocky brim, must and will find vent. And thus to un- 
bosom ourselves, and open the sluice-gates of our sor- 
rowing hearts have we gathered within the walls of 
this edifice, this day consecrated anew in our minds by 
the memories of its origin and its most devoted friend. 
These habiliments of mourning; these solemn counte- 
nances ; yonder picture still smiling from out its melan- 
choly drapery upon those who by the living original 



20 EULOGY ON THE LATE 

were ever hailed and cherished as friends ; these tu- 
multuous emotions that beat like ocean waves within 
our bosoms ; yonder solemn assembly with its pealing 
organ and sobbing choir; and above all, that manly but 
silent form now sleeping so quietly in the sealed coffin, 
hang all around us as dark clouds of witnesses, arrest- 
ing us in our various paths, and testifying in tones more 
than earthly, that the power of another world over- 
shadows us. 

Alas ! that the story of our loss should prove so true ! 
It was first whispered in our ears by the near and 
devoted friends who had just heard the souVs depart- 
ing sigh, then confirmed by the sable badge that swings 
at the house of death; soon re-echoed in the various 
resolutions of public bodies and private associations, 
and to-day emblazoned on the pages of the daily press. 
This moment it has wailed to us in the sweet but mel- 
ancholy strains of yonder band, and in that far-ex- 
tended procession from which we have for a moment 
withdrawn, revealing as it were in panoramic view the 
land of departed spirits, it crowds its solemn evidence 
before our moistened view, and with fiery finger writes 
upon our suffering hearts the record, " James A. Van 
Dyke is no more! 1 '' 

Difficult as it is for the mind to receive and retain 
this unwelcome announcement, yet is it even so, and 
soon we must be reconciled to the harsh reality that 



HCXN". JAMES A. TAN DYKE. 21 

leaves this void in our ranks. Soon the places which 
have on every side known him so well, will know him 
no more forever. His form which in manly comeli- 
ness and pride was wont so often to rise within these 
walls, lies motionless and shrouded for eternity. That 
hand which with so much confidence and cheer, but a 
few years since laid the foundation-stone of this beau- 
tiful building, never again shall clasp the hand of 
earthly friend,— that voice so musical and welcome to 
our ears, so invariably called for in the public assembly, 
and so often heard in that Forum where many of us 
labor, still lingers with its pleasant cadence in our ears, 
but it is a silvery echo from the Past ; we shall hear it no 
more forever. The Seal that Death stamps upon the 
grave is broken only by the trump of the Resurrection, 
"when we shall all be changed," "in the twinkling of 
an eye ; " for the inspired Ones of old assure us that 
"the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised." 

" But lie was ours — and may that word of pride 
Drown, with its lofty tone, pain's bitter cry" — 

and as we set apart this brief moment to our sorrow, 
the memory of his virtues as they shone with genial 
warmth along his daily path, will alleviate that grief 
which now smites so sorely upon our hearts — this fare- 
well meditation shall, for the time at least, check its 
flow, as we offer you a few hurried words shewing the 



22 EULOGY ON THE LATE 

relations of our brother with this Department, as one 
of its most active and zealous members, and the sym- 
pathizing and devoted friend of all who were connected 
with it. His early life among us, and his professional 
history, I am compelled from want of time briefly to 
pass over. To many of you it is known already, and 
to those who know it not, the testimony of the various 
public bodies with which he was connected, and the 
columns of a sympathizing press will soon make it 
familiar. 

Mr. Yan Dyke was born in the month of December, 
1813, in the county of Franklin and State of Pennsyl- 
vania. He was educated among her rugged mountains 
in his early youth, and received his diploma at the age 
of 19, from the faculty of Madison College, at Union- 
town, in the same State. Immediately after his gradua- 
tion he commenced the study of the law, which he pur- 
sued in the offices of Mr. Price of Hagerstown and Mr. 
Meredith of Baltimore, in the State of Maryland. In 
the year 1834 he for the first time entered within the 
limits of our city and bearing in his hands a letter of 
introduction from the present Secretary* of the Depart- 
ment of the Interior, to our fellow citizen, the Hon. Mr. 
Frazer, he announced himself as an intended citizen of 
Detroit, and at once gave himself up to a preparation 
for legal practice under Mr. Frazer. That preparation, 



Hon. Robert McClelland. 



HON. JAMES A. VAN DYKE. 23 

with his ardent temperament and unflagging energy was 
soon completed, and having married in the following 
year the daughter of one of our then oldest citizens, 
(the late Peter J. Desnoyers, Esq.) he launched his 
bark with a brave confidence in his own spirit for a 
successful issue to the tempestuous conflicts before 
him. 

It is not necessary for me in the presence of this 
assemblage of citizens to say, that Mr. Yan Dyke proved 
himself in his after life a devoted friend to his adopted 
city. When he first entered its borders, it yet remained 
but a small provincial town, numbering perhaps 6000 
inhabitants, and of the most contracted dimensions. 
True, the same beautiful river that gives us our name, 
then rolled its clear waters along our shores, and the 
same sky overhung its few and unpretending wooden 
tenements; but these are about all that remain to us of 
the Detroit of that day. Then, our lamented brother, 
as he stood upon the margin of this yet wild but glo- 
rious stream — a pilgrim boy in the wilderness of the 
West — saw not the magnificent piles of overhanging 
warehouses, and heavy buildings which to-day crowd 
and crown its banks. No palace-like Steamers, such as 
the gorgeous " Plymouth Rock" and " Western World," 
then vexed with their thunder-sounding wheels the 
silent waters that glided by our forest-girt shores; nor 
indeed in that day were such boats seen on any waters 



24 EULOGY ON THE LATE 

that wash the earth. A few high-roofed wooden build- 
ings, crowded closely together, and forming splendid 
material for universal conflagration, still remained as it 
had long previously been, the striking characteristic cf 
our then unfinished city. No broad avenues stretched 
for miles, as those of to-day, in all directions from the 
city's centre; no paved streets or spacious walks were 
then known among us ; no busy crowds thronged along 
our highways ; no locomotives screamed defiant chorus 
from either side of our river ; no extensive shops, now 
filled with brawny arms, reared their lofty walls around 
Vulcanic depots; no tide of commerce poured its mighty 
stream thro' our city's streets, nor brilliant lamps rolled 
back the darkness of the night; no Firemen's Hall 
spread out its hospitable roof for us or those who pre- 
ceded us in the gallant but oppressive labors of this 
Organization ; no limpid stream poured its cooling tide 
thro' miles of iron arteries beneath your streets, and 
gushed at the Fireman's bid from innumerable foun- 
tains throughout your wide extent; nor was the city 
even half protected by the presence of sufficient and 
competent engines, such as now obey your command 
in every ward of our city. 

All these public conveniences and improvements, 
then absent, are now with us, and shared in by a 
population of 50,000 people. How much Mr. Van Dyke 
had to do with their procurement and advancement 



HON. JAMES A. VAN DYKE. 



25 



among us, is well known to you all, and need not here 
be particularly stated. Within a year or two after his 
arrival in this city, his name was enrolled on the list 
of members, composing "Protection Fire Company, 
No. 1," the first duly organized Fire Company in 
Detroit; and with them he served out his full time, 
receiving from the hands of its officers a regular 
and honorable discharge. In the ever memorable and 
devastating fires that wasted different portions of our 
city in the years 1837, 1842 and 1848, he, as an hum- 
ble fireman, contended with the fearful element, and 
rendered his share of service (nor was it small) in bring- 
ing it again under subjection, and withholding it from 
the further destruction of the store, the shop and the 
fire-side. While an active member of his Company, 
he appeared ambitious only for the discharge of his 
duty as such. No matter how rudely raged the storm, 
whether armed with the rains of summer, or the ice 
and hail of freezing winter, his step was turned toward 
his engine so soon as the alarm bell rang its warning 
peal upon the ear. He was obstinate in the avoidance 
of office, though his fellow members frequently urged 
it upon his acceptance, and would only consent to serve 
as their Representative Trustee to this Department, 
which he did for many years. As is so appropriately 
expressed in his address, but a year or two since de- 
livered to you from this stand, and repeated in your 



28 EULOGY ON THE LATE 

resolutions just passed, he "deemed it a worthy ambi- 
tion to dedicate himself to the work with heart brave 
and steadfast, tenacious of his obedience to law and 
order, and with an elevated and stern determination 
to tread only the path of rectitude.'' 

From the day he first signed the Constitution and 
by-laws of his company, and laid his hand upon the 
brakes, he continued a firm and devoted friend of the 
Fire Department. His influence over its members, no 
one will deny, was unbounded, and as confessed in 
your resolutions, its tendency was ever " to strengthen 
the unity and preserve the integrity of [your] fellow- 
ship by appealing in times of conflict and dissension 
to [your] better feelings as men, and to [your] regard 
for duty as firemen and citizens." 

While the Department, as a whole, was feeble, undis- 
ciplined, and by no means comfortable in its appoint- 
ments, he infused life and energy into its various 
branches. An esprit du corps was aroused, which 
soon revived new companies and reformed old, changed 
the attire and appearance of the fireman, added to his 
self respect, and gave additional dignity to his position 
and vocation; secured new and improved engines; 
multiplied and located them in different parts of the 
city; awakened a sentiment of sympathy on the part 
of the city government with the Department; and 
continually suggested some new scheme of reform; 



HON. JAMES A. VAN DYKE. 27 

until ere long from chaos appeared order; from confu- 
sion, discipline; from that which was unattractive, 
beauty and comeliness. It was the good fortune of 
Mr. Yan Dyke, after this slow maturity of our present 
unrivalled Department, creeping up as it did from a 
nucleus of less than fifty men, to walk through our 
streets as its President, followed by members tastefully 
apparelled, and numbered by hundreds, and by engines 
beautiful, and as well appointed and ornamented as any 
in our Union. This was his triumph, and he deserved 
it, for his labors had been more than commensurate 
with his reward. 

In the year 1840, still careful for the interests of the 
Fire Department, he framed and procured the passage 
of its law of Incorporation. The Department was at 
once organized under the provisions of this Charter, and 
for five successive years he served as its popular and 
efficient President. During that period the Department 
passed its crisis of trial, and in consequence of the un- 
tiring energies of its chief officer, his assiduous labors, 
and his never failing vigilance and care, he was enabled 
on retiring from the office of President, to leave it on 
the high road to prosperity, possessed of this elegant 
building which will long stand u a monument of his 
public spirit, his enduring perseverance, his iron will 
and his deep financial skill and sagacity." So long as 
the Hall shall bear the name given to it by him, so 



28 EULOGY ON THE LATE 

long as the Firemen of the city of Detroit shall con- 
tinue here to assemble, yea ! so long as one of these 
stones shall remain upon another, his name, and the 
story of his generous kindness shall linger on the lips 
of those who now live to do him honor, and of such 
as coming after him, and reading it afresh from the 
artist's canvass, (which, happily for our Department, 
now so appropriately adorns these walls,) shall send it 
down with blessings to successive generations. 

In the year 1847, Mr. Van Dyke was elected Mayor 
of the city, and gave himself up to a close and careful 
superintendence and administration of its affairs. The 
city was then badly in debt, and that debt had, up to 
this period, never been accurately ascertained or 
funded. During his term of office this was accom- 
plished, and a reduction of the public debt in the sum 
of a few thousand dollars first made. 

While thus administering the affairs of the city, he 
was not unmindful of the wants of this Department, 
but gave them his continued and interested attention. 
All that it was right and proper for the city then to 
do in its support and improvement, was fully accom- 
plished, and no inconsiderable part of the service 
already referred to as having been thus rendered, was 
given during this period. 

Nor did his interest or labors cease on his retiring 
from the office of Mayor, but were even still more 



HON". JAMES A. VAN DYKE. 29 

effectively given during subsequent years, and until 
the present building was constructed, and this Hall 
dedicated on the night of the 4th of December, 1851. 
Nor were these services unappreciated by the Depart- 
ment, as may be seen by reference to a report of their 
committee, appointed to audit the accounts of the build- 
ing committee, and adopted by the Department on the 
8th of December, 1851. After the completion of the 
building, Mr. Van Dyke transferred the management 
of its fiscal affairs back to the Department, showing 
in his report the small balance only of $11.32 due from 
the Treasury, notwithstanding the varied and heavy 
disbursements which had been made by the building 
committee, a large portion of which however had been 
provided for by their procurement of a loan of money 
through Mr. Van Dyke's agency, and which was secured 
by bond and mortgage upon the property. 

This committee say, "Your committee would take 
occasion to speak of the very faithful and efficient 
manner in which the building committee have per- 
formed the various and important duties devolving on 
them, and especially would they call the attention of 
the Board to the very large share of those duties per- 
formed by the chairman of said committee, James A. 
Van Dyke, Esq. When the pressing nature and mul- 
tiplicity of his own private business is considered, we 
can better estimate the great sacrifices he must have 



30 EULOGY ON THE LATE 

made for the good of this Department, with whose best 
interests he has ever been identified, and for the pro- 
motion of which he has done more than any other 
member, however devoted he may have been. It is a 
matter of congratulation to every member of this De- 
partment, that after years of strenuous effort, we have 
at last seen the capstone laid on our splendid Hall— a 
building at once the pride of every Fireman, and an 
ornament to our beautiful city, whose generous and 
liberal citizens have contributed so largely to this, the 
cherished object of every fireman. And in view of 
what we owe, as a Department, to the gentlemen who 
have served us so faithfully on the building com- 
mittee, your committee would respectfully submit the 
following resolution : 

Resolved, That Hon. James A. Van Dyke, Hon. Edmund A. Brush, 
Wm. Barclay, Geo. Foote, and Henry H. Leroy, Esquires, are entitled 
to the warmest thanks of this Department for the very faithful and 
efficient manner in which they have discharged the duties devolving 
on them as building committee, and this Department will long re- 
member them as their warmest friends. 

The honored name at the head of this list of acknowl- 
edged benefactors, was but yesternight stricken from 
the roll of the living members of this Department; and 
henceforth you are called upon to extend your pledged 
remembrance of him beyond the walks of life and the 
darkness of the grave. The good that a man does 
lives after him; and shall not this heaven-inspired 



HON. JAMES A. VAN DYKE. 31 

sentiment receive further confirmation — a new illus- 
tration, in the faithful tribute you will render our de- 
parted brother, by ever keeping fresh around your heart 
the memory of his deeds ? We may write down his 
virtues upon our public Journals, and herald them 
through the press, but these are perishable records at 
best, and the moth may obliterate, or the fire destroy 
them ere the ashes of the departed shall have mingled 
with its kindred dust. It is in the secret chambers of the 
heart alone that we can best preserve the excellencies 
of our brother's character ; and when these hearts shall 
begin slowly to contract beneath the withering hand 
of age, let us transfer the sacred trust unto those still 
younger, who take their pulses from our own, and thus 
shall our ardent love for the dead be perpetuated 
through the coming years. 

The sincerity of our friend's affection and devotion 
to your interests will not be questioned. And though 
by some he may possibly have been supposed to main- 
tain his relations with your Department for ulterior 
and purely selfish ends, and with a view perhaps of 
strengthening himself politically, or otherwise, in the 
community; yet where, I confidently ask, is the evi- 
dence of such a design? Although stimulated by a 
laudable degree of ambition for the good opinion of his 
friends and the public ; successful almost beyond com- 
parison in the accumulation of wealth and professional 



32 EULOGY ON THE LATE 

rank and honors ; beloved and cherished in an eminent 
degree by all classes of our citizens; and until quite 
recently flushed with the promise of many years of 
health and domestic happiness, yet has he steadily 
and inflexibly withheld himself from a contest for 
political honors. With the exception of his election 
to the Mayoralty in 1847, (to which allusion has 
already been made,) he has never suffered his name 
to emblazon any party banner, although ever faith- 
ful and devoted to the party of his choice. For 
many years he occupied throughout our State a promi- 
nent position politically, and was always among the 
first to open the campaign and respond to the bugle 
that rallied the opposing hosts of the Union. A con- 
servative Whig — he was not the less devoted and firm 
in his attachment to Freedom; and in her defence 
against the usurpations of aggressive Slavery he was 
eloquent in speech and untiring in action. Thus 
prominent as a politician, and beloved as he always 
was by the masses, yet still standing aloof from a per- 
sonal scramble after party honors, who will deny that 
at least in his intercourse with you, and in his labors 
on your behalf, it was the nobleness of his nature alone 
that animated him ; and that he served you as you serve 
and toil for those who sit by your fireside, simply 
because the love and affection of your heart bids you to 
the icork. 



HON. JAMES A. YAK DYKE. 33 

Such, and such only were the motives that actuated 
him whom we thus openly lament, and to whose name 
and memory amid these fleeting moments we fraternally 
tender all the earthly honors within our limited reach. 
His heart was large, and he was (much more than most 
of us) strongly governed by his sensibilities. The nicely 
strung chords of that heart vibrated in sympathy 
with the shrunken form of poverty as it glided by his 
side with stealthy step, and some of us have seen the 
tear unbidden flow over his flushed cheek when the 
sorrowing child of guilt bowed his head on the rail of 
the prisoner's box before him, to sob unseen over his 
impending fate. Nor did any one (and I appeal to him 
who deems himself the humblest man in this assembly) 
ever present himself at his office door for counsel or 
assistance, who went away unrelieved, or still bowed 
down in heaviness of spirit. The warmth of our 
friend's affections were strikingly revealed in his readi- 
ness to grasp the hand of whosoever saluted him, 
whether it was the soft-gloved gentleman or the 
swarthy blacksmith, fresh from his anvil ; in the smile 
that at the same time broke like the brightness of the 
morning over his handsome countenance ; in the easy 
and winning manner that characterized him of address- 
ing those he esteemed by the softness of their boy- 
hood's name; and in his promptness to open his ear 
for the grievances of all, whether assailed in the quiet- 



34 EULOGY ON THE LATE 

ness of his office, the rush of the Courts, or the throng 
of the highway. Nor were any of his compeers so 
ready or so competent in those delicate cases of family, 
neighborly, or professional differences, or those still 
more complicated cases which so often arise between 
those engaged in some common business or pursuit, to 
solve the mystery that perplexed, or cut the Gordian 
knot that fettered his friend, as was he. With a mind 
ever clear and active, intuitively empowered to fathom 
the profoundest intricacies, or trace the most Labyrin- 
thian passages, he was endowed with powers and facul- 
ties that fitted him fully and completely for the work 
of his life. In addition to all this, he loved to find 
opportunities of bringing these peculiar powers into 
requisition, and with an honest and commendable pride, 
delighted to find himself the successful arbitrer between 
litigants and friends. 

His wealth of speech, his manner soft and bland, 
all enabled him to deal successfully and at the same 
time acceptably to all with whom he was brought in 
contact; but as we realize the sad change that has 
come over these, his once glorious gifts, we may well 
exclaim, — 

" Great man of language, whence this mighty change % 
This dumb despair and droopiDg of thy head? 
Tho' strong persuasion hung upon thy lip, 
And deep insinuation's softer arts, 



HON". JAMES A. VAN DYKE. 35 

In ambush lay about thy flowing tongue; 

Alas ! how fallen now ! Thick mists and silence 

Rest like a weary cloud upon thy breast; 

Ah ! where is now thy oft uplifted arm, 

The strength of action, and the force of words, 

The well-turned period, and the sweet-tuned voice 

With all those lesser ornaments of phrase? 

Fled, all forever, as they ne'er had been." 

It would be a pleasant indulgence, did our time per- 
mit thus to extend our sketch of the benevolent and 
agreeable traits of Mr. Yan Dyke's character, as exhib- 
ited in his readiness to aid in the advancement of any- 
desirable public or private enterprise, and which at 
various times have been so signally manifested in his 
devotion to this Department as a body, and to its mem- 
bers individually. But pleasant as the task might be 
our exercise here is limited, and we hasten forward in 
our melancholy reflections. 

And in order that you may see how the community 
at large concur in this expression, as to the character 
of the deceased, I have but to refer you to the action 
of the Common Council at their last session. Their 
official presence in the ranks of this day's procession 
likewise tells us that the death of James A. Yan Dyke 
is a public loss, and in behalf of our entire population, 
who have in so many ways received the advantages of 
his counsel and labors, they offer such tribute of respect 
as they are enabled to give to his departed worth. A 



36 EULOGY ON THE LATE 

citizen of twenty years' standing, influential, honora- 
ble, enterprising, public-spirited and just, has suddenly 
been taken from us, and the city shrouds her Hall in 
black, and mourns her loss. 

Nor does it seem inappropriate for me, as an humble 
member of that profession he so much adorned, (re- 
membering that twelve years ago I was by him 
officially examined and kindly bidden to enter that 
gate of active life, which with a smile he then opened 
before me,) here to state the high estimation placed on 
Mr. Van Dyke by the Bar of Detroit, whose Secretary 
he has been since the death of the lamented Talbott. 
I would point you to that assemblage of his brethren 
gathered but yesterday morning in the Court room, 
where he had so often by his legal ability, his acumen, 
and eloquence won for himself those laurels which all 
his brethren so kindly conceded to him, and which 
must long bloom fragrantly around his tomb, and bid 
you mark the scene there enacting. The venerable 
President of the Bar, who had, twenty-one years ago, 
received him into his office as a student, rises in his 
place, and with words half smothered with emotion, 
announces the death of him who was long acknowl- 
edged to be "the pride of the Bar." He sketches his 
professional career, his moral worth, his energy, benevo- 
lence and greatness of heart; and having invited an 
expression of sentiment from the Bar, with tears upon 



HON. JAMES A. VAN DYKE. 37 

his cheek, drops into his seat. A sacred silence per- 
vades the room, the Committee appointed for the pur- 
pose soon report their resolutions with faltering tongue ; 
one or two rise to support them, and to breathe forth 
their sorrow; but the blow is too severe — those hearts 
that had so recently beat warmly against the one that 
now beats no more, were too full for speech, and in 
sadness and silence they disperse to their offices and 
their own gloomy thoughts. But their record is behind 
them, and from it we learn that they have spoken thus : 

Resolved, By the Bar of Detroit, that we have heard of the death 
of our distinguished brother, the Hon. James A. Van Dyke, with the 
most profound sensibility. 

Resolved, That we deplore this sudden death and unexpected be- 
reavement, not only as a loss to our city and State, but as a peculiar 
loss to our profession, of which he was an eminent member and so 
distinguished an ornament. 

Resolved, That we who have been the witnesses and sharers of his 
professional labors, can bear full testimony to the genius, skill, learn- 
ing and industry which he brought to that profession, to which he 
devoted alike the chivalrous fire of his youth, and the riper powers of 
his manhood, in which he cherished a manly pride, and whose best 
honors and success he so rapidly and so honorably achieved. 

Resolved, That while we bear this just tribute to the fine intellect 
of our deceased brother, we turn with greater pleasure to those gene- 
rous qualities of his heart, which endeared him to us all as a compan- 
ion and friend ; which have left tender memorials with so many of his 
younger brothers, of grateful sympathy and assistance rendered when 
most needed ; and which made his life a bright example of just and 
honorable conduct in all its relations'. 

Resolved, That though devoted to the profession of his choice, yet 
he was never indifferent to the wider duties which were devolved upon 



j?r 



38 



EULOGY ON THE LATE 



him by society at large, and he filled the many public stations to which 
he was called by the confidence and esteem of his fellow citizens, with 
an earnestness, purity and ability which was alike honorable to him- 
self and serviceable to the public. ■>, 

Resolved, That we most respectfully tender our sincere sympathy 
to his bereaved family and relations, and the Secretary of this meet- 
ing is requested to transmit to Mrs. Van Dyke, and to his aged father, 
a duly attested copy of these resolutions. 

Such is the testimony of those who knew him best, 
who engaged daily with him in the rough struggles of 
professional contest, who must have seen him when most 
severely tried by his passions, who discussed before the 
Courts with him questions often largely affecting the 
interests of his clients, (and other than he no client 
had more faithful and devoted counsel,) and all of whom 
unite to honor him with their choicest and purest tribute. 

Of kindred character is the testimony of minor Asso- 
ciations, such as the Detroit Young Men's Society, 
among others, of which he was one of the earliest 
Presidents, and ever a warm friend ; and also the beau- 
tiful and touching tribute paid to him by the Board of 
Water Commissioners, which appears in this morning's 
Journals. 

With such a record of tender tributes as these to the 
memory of our departed brother, it is not necessary for 
us to add that he was a devoted husband and father. 
He w^hose heart so readily warms to the friends of the 
outside world will surely gather the wife of his bosom 



HON. JAMES A. VAN" DYKE. 39 

and the children of his love close to his side, and bind 
them tenderly with the arms of affection. Even so 
was it with our friend. 

Previous to his own departure Death had been brood- 
ing over his house, and beneath the dreadful shadow 
of his wing two of his babes sickened and died. Their 
loss was sorely felt by the father, and though danger- 
ously unwell himself, still like the wounded eagle he 
hovered about the nest of his little ones, and vainly 
strove to drive off the fell destroyer — alas ! that while 
thus engaged the arrow of the Avenger should find its 
way through the joints of the harness, and touch his 
noble heart ! But thus he fell amid his fluttering brood, 
and the King of Terrors rejoices over his mighty vic- 
tory. The home once so cheerful is now sad and silent. 
The cry of the children for the tender father's embrace 
rolls back upon their heavy hearts unanswered. The 
devoted wife sits desolate amid her broken flock, and 
bewails the loss of so much love from the earth. An 
aged father in a distant State bows his gray hairs in 
sorrow, and prays for Death to lead him away to his 
beloved son in the spirit land, while universal grief 
outbursting like the tempest, sweeps with crushing 
power over the hearts of his myriad friends. 

But thus it is — Van Dyke has fallen just as his feet 
had stepped upon the pinnacle of success. Riches, 
honors, a happy home, innumerable friends, and a fair 



40 EULOGY ON THE LATE 

prospect of many years of life to come, were all his ; 
but at the midnight hour the step of the relentless 
King is heard in his chamber, and at one fell swoop, 
he is robbed of all. A death like this, so akin to a public 
calamity, we almost fancy in our sudden alarm, would 
shock the very wheels of Nature, and pale the stars 
with grief. But while men mourn, Nature smiles, and 
puts on fresh splendors. The grass springs up in its 
strength, and the flowers to-day are bursting their petals 
on the verdant sod that holds his new made grave. 
The blue sky above us, on which we almost fancy 
our great sorrow will be traced by an Almighty 
hand, sheds smiles and gentle dews upon the earth; 
the dusky robe of night is yet adorned with her starry 
jewels, while the unpitying sun still presses on through 
the heavens in his glory, unchecked by the sorrows of 
earth, unclouded by her gloom. Beyond the sacred place 
appointed for his final rest, and washed by the crystal 
waters of the "Detroit," stretch afar his own broad 
lands, whose groves are even now vocal with the songs 
of spring's feathered heralds. But those songs reach 
not the ear of him who has wandered for the last time 
amid their pensive shade. 

" The dew is on that Spring-time's greenest grass, 
Thro' which the modest daisy blushing peeps; 

The gentle wind that like a ghost doth pass, 
A waving shadow on his meadow keeps; 

But he who loved them all, shall never be 

Again among those woods, or on that meadow's lea." 



HON. JAMES A. VAN DYKE. 41 

But In this undisturbed repose of Nature, as con- 
trasted with this sudden eclipse of all life's brightest 
prospect, there lurks a lesson that we, who yet remain 
in the world's great bustle, should receive and improve. 
It is, that though we should here gather to ourselves 
riches and honors, though men should rise up and un- 
cover their heads in our presence, though the meridian 
of life only may have been reached, and in our vain con- 
fidence we look boldly forward to a happy future ; though 
the spring-time be upon us, and the flowers of earth 
nod smiles and blessings in our fearless faces, yet even 
then may the Night come, and sorrow and tears be 
poured into the cups of our children. Nor would Nature 
withhold her smiles, or the world stay its crowding 
march to mourn over our loss. The physical Universe 
in w^hich we dwell, sustained and guided by Omnipo- 
tence, would still sweep on in its course, until its mis- 
sion be fulfilled. But, as is so often whispered by 
that still small voice within the secret chambers of 
man's soul, there is another world for intelligent crea- 
tures, whose territory begins beyond the grave, and is 
of illimitable extent. It becomes us, then, so to culti- 
vate here the immortal germ within us, that when the 
summons comes, and we shall have rolled away from 
us with our mortal part, all the corroding cares that be- 
long to earthly life, our spirits, in the company of the 
Holy ones, sent down as guides from the Upper World, 



42 EULOGY ON THE LATE HON. JAMES A. VAN DYKE. 

and sustained by a triumphant Faith, may wing their 
way Heavenward, to rest in that land where there is no 
more sorrow or sighing, and "where tears are wiped 
away from all eyes" — a land into which we hope the 
spirit of our departed brother may even now have 
found happy entrance. 

Fellow Firemen, one more duty remains to us ! Our 
brother has passed the threshold of his home for the 
last time, and now his corpse awaits our company to 
the grave. Often has he, with saddened heart, trod 
mournfully behind the coffin of the dead Fireman, and 
dropped the tear of sorrow on his tomb. In remem- 
brance of his former custom in this respect, and with 
hearts filled by a grateful recognition of all that he 
was to us, to the city and the State ; let us walk by his 
remains to the burial Mount, # and with a tear over the 
past and a blessing on his memory, give to the bursting 
flowers of advancing Spring all that is left us of our 
beloved brother, Van Dyke ! 

* Mt. Elliott Cemetery. 



PROCEEDINGS 

OP THE 

DETROIT BAR 



Pursuant to notice, the members of the Detroit Bar 
met at the United States Court room on Wednesday, 
May 9th, 1855: 

On taking the chair, the President, A. D. Fraser, 
Esq., said: He had called the members of the profes- 
sion together for the purpose of rendering a suitable 
tribute to the memory of Hon. James A. Van Dyke, 
whose death had given a painful shock, not only to the 
profession, but to the community at large. In the or- 
dinary course of events, he had not expected that it 
would have fallen to his lot to make this sad announce- 
ment. The death of Mr. Van Dyke was an event 
almost too painful for contemplation to those who knew 
him in life. Few deaths could have produced such a 
void, or have brought such sorrow to the social and 
domestic circle. It came suddenly, and as yet they 
had not recovered from the painful emotions created 



44 PROCEEDINGS OF THE DETROIT BAR. 



by its announcement; he would not now dwell upon 
the character and virtues of the deceased. He spoke 
to those who knew them, and associated with him 
whom they mourned ; and language could but poorly 
reflect the admiration that all felt for one who was 
emphatically the pride and the loved of his profession. 
In 1835 Mr. Van Dyke, then barely past his majority, 
left his native State, Pennsylvania, and brought to him 
(Mr. F.) a letter of introduction from the present Sec- 
retary of the Interior. He had preserved that letter 
as a pleasing memorial of his first acquaintance with 
one who subsequently became, and to his death con- 
tinued an esteemed and cherished friend. The letter 

was as follows : — 

Monroe, Feb. 6, 1835. 
Dear Sir — Permit me to introduce to your acquaintance, my friend 
Mr. Yan Dyke, of Pennsylvania. He is one of our profession, and 
has in his possession testimonials which will entitle him to your respect 
both as an attorney and as a gentleman. His object is to locate in 
Detroit, if advisable. Be so good as to advise with him on the sub- 
ject. Any favor conferred on him will be fully appreciated by your 
friend, 

Robert McClelland. 

Alex. D. Fraser, Esq., Detroit. 

At this time Mr. Yan Dyke entered his office to 
pursue the studies of his profession. In a short time 
after he was admitted to practice, and during the re- 
mainder of his life, steadily pursued the rugged path 
which all must tread, who hope to attain positions of 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE DETROIT BAE. 45 

professional distinction and influence. By his learning, 
ability, perseverance, and more than all else, by his 
pure and spotless integrity, he rapidly ascended to the 
highest honors of his profession, and presented an in- 
stance of success previously, almost unexampled in the 
West. In twenty years he had accomplished what in 
ordinary instances requires a life's labor. He had ac- 
quired fame, riches, professional eminence, public hon- 
ors and offices of high trust and wide-spread popularity, 
certain to be enduring, because based upon respect for 
his character and admiration of his abilities. He hon- 
orably and faithfully discharged every duty incident to 
the various high positions he filled. Years would elapse 
before the Bar would possess another such brilliant 
ornament, and the public search long before finding 
another servant so true, upright and able. 

To his profession their lamented brother had brought 
an ample store of legal learning, and qualities peculiar 
to himself — which recommended him to all — won the 
friendship of all who knew him, and hushed even in 
the bosoms of his adversaries, every emotion but kind- 
ness towards the man who, during twenty years of ac- 
tive professional life, had never needlessly inflicted pain 
upon an opponent. In him the younger members of 
the profession had lost a warm sympathizing friend — 
towards them he ever cherished the kindest feelings, 
and probably there are but few among them who would 



46 PROCEEDINGS OF THE DETROIT BAR. 

not to-day recall some act of substantial service, or 
some graceful courtesy which smoothed or brightened 
their professional path. Their friend had passed from 
the scenes of his labors, triumphs and kindly deeds; 
his sun had gone down while it was yet day; he 
had left a name dear to his friends — a rich inheri- 
tance to his children, consecrated by the remembrance 
of all those genial qualities and virtues with which he 
was so richly endowed. He had left a reputation which 
would be long a beacon-light to every aspiring law- 
yer — a proud example of what may be accomplished 
by learning, perseverance and integrity. He had, be- 
fore the prime of life gathered riches, fame and honors 
to an extent rarely found, save in connection with gray 
hairs. But alas! when all was attained — when the 
future glistened with the promise of all life's sweetest 
enjoyments and attractions, his sky became overcast — 
the strong man was stricken down — of the friend so 
long loved and cherished, nothing now remained but 
the bright and spotless reputation, gained chiefly by 
almost unexampled fidelity, ability, perseverance and 
success at the bar — of that reputation his associates 
might well be proud ! The eloquent advocacy which 
he so often exhibited in the room where they were 
assembled, would not soon be forgotten. Here, in one 
of the principal theatres of his triumphs, they were 
now met to render to departed worth and greatness, 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE DETROIT BAR, 47 

the last sad tribute of admiring friends. Their loss 
was irreparable— the void could not be filled, but there 
was a melancholy consolation in thus meeting to ex- 
press their feelings and record their opinions. It was 
fitting and proper to render homage to a name so en- 
deared to the profession. 

Judge Hand, after a few remarks upon the solemnity 
of the occasion, and the thousand generous impulses 
and talents of the deceased, which called for strong 
tokens of respect from the admirers of J. A. Yan Dyke, 
said, that having previously spoken at length upon this 
last subject in the U. S. Circuit Court, he would not 
now detain the meeting further than to move, that a 
committee of five be appointed to report resolutions 
expressive of the sense of the members present. 

Judge Hand, G. Y. N. Lothrop, Judge Witherell, 
David E. Harbaugh, and H. D. Terry, were appointed 
such committee ; and, after a brief absence, the follow- 
ing resolutions were accepted and adopted unanimously : 

Resolved, by the Bar of Detroit, That we hear of the death of 
our distinguished brother, the Hon. James A. Van Dyke, with the 
most profound sensibility. 

Resolved^ That we deplore this sudden and unexpected bereave- 
ment, not only as a loss to our city and State, but as a peculiar loss 
to our profession, of which he was an eminent member, and so dis- 
tinguished an ornament. 

Resolved^ That we who have been witnesses and sharers of his 
professional labors, can best give full testimony of the genius, skill, 
learning and industry which he brought to that profession to which 



48 PROCEEDINGS OF THE DETROIT BAE. 

he devoted the chivalrous fire of his youth, and the ripe powers of 
his manhood ; in which he cherished a manly pride, and whose best 
honors and success he so rapidly and honorably achieved. 

Resolved, That while we bear this just tribute to the fine intellect 
of our deceased brother, we turn with greater pleasure to those gen- 
erous qualities of his heart which endeared him to us all as a com- 
panion and a friend, which left tender memorials with so many of his 
younger brethren of grateful sympathy and assistance, rendered when 
most needed, and which made his life a bright example of just and 
honorable conduct in all its relations. 

Resolved, That though devoted to the profession of his choice, yet 
he was never indifferent to the wider duties which devolved on him 
in society at large; and he filled the many public stations to which 
he was called by the confidence and esteem of hi3 fellow citizens, 
with an earnestness, purity and ability, which were alike honorable 
to himself and useful to the public. 

Resolved, That we most respectfully tender our sincere sympathy 
to his bereaved family and relatives, and the Secretary of this meet- 
ing is requested to transmit to Mrs. Van Dyke, and to his aged father, 
a duly attested copy of these resolutions. 

Resolved, That as a token of our sincere sorrow, and of our deep 
respect for our deceased friend and brother, we will attend his funeral 
in a body, wearing the customary badge of mourning. 

C. I. Walker, Esq., moved the adoption of the reso- 
lutions, and said: 

It is with diffidence, Mr. President, that I add any- 
thing to what has already been said of our deceased 
friend and brother. It has been my pleasure to know 
Mr. Van Dyke but for a few years, and such is the case 
with a large portion of the present members of the 
Detroit Bar. They are comparatively young and new 
men. Although Mr, Yan Dyke was himself a young 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE DETROIT BAR. 49 

man, yet there are but few — very few present who are 
not his juniors here. Yet, sir, we have known him long 
enough and well enough to unite most heartily in the 
glowing tribute which you have so feelingly paid to his 
memory, and in the sentiments and emotions so admi- 
rably expressed in the resolutions which we have 
just heard. 

Mr. Van Dyke, by his untiring industry, his accurate 
learning, his quick perceptions, his sound judgment, his 
fervid eloquence, had placed himself in the very front 
rank of the Detroit and Michigan Bar — a Bar inferior 
to that of few, if of any States in the Union. At the 
early age of forty-two, he had won the highest honors 
of the profession, short of the judicial ermine, and as 
sound, judicious lawyer, and able and eloquent advocate, 
we acknowledged for him no superior, and few equals. 
As such we were justly proud of him, and deeply do 
we mourn his loss. Upon whom shall his mantle fall? 

But it is as a friend and companion that we mourn 
him most deeply, for it was in these relations that he 
was so closely and warmly bound to our hearts. Few 
men have, in so strong a degree, the power to win and 
retain friends. His beaming smile, his bland and cour- 
teous manners, his ready and warm sympathies, and 
his ever gentlemanly and winning deportment, had a 
talismanic power that few could resist and none desired 
to. The sharp and rugged contests of the profession 



50 PROCEEDINGS OF THE DETROIT EAR. 

are not favorable to the amenities of life, but those 
asperities that too often mark the conduct of the busy, 
active lawyer, formed no trait in his character. We 
may in this, and many other respects, look to him as a 
bright example for our own guidance. 

His death is not without its lessons. In early life, 
in the full flush of manhood, he had won those earthly 
rewards that are usually the fruit of a life-long toil — 
fame, honors, wealth, troops of friends. With the 
tenderest and happiest social ties — with wife and 
children, with cultivated tastes, warm and generous 
sympathies, and with abundant leisure to enjoy these 
accumulated blessings, a brilliant future seemed open 
before him; but for him that future in this life no 
longer exists. In the prime of his manhood he has 
fallen, almost without a warning. Nor is this the 
first of similar events that this Bar has been called to 
mourn. Within the short time that I have been here, the 
amiable and generous Sumner, the indefatigable and 
learned Davidson, the pure-minded, noble and philan- 
thropic Bars tow, have one after another fallen — not 
crowned with frosts of age, but in the very vigor of life ; 
and now, latest and saddest of all, Yan Dj^ke has passed 
from the scene of his hopes, his trials and triumphs. 

How soon some of us, in the flush of health and 
youthful hope, may follow, or who will be the next 
victim, none can tell. 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE DETROIT BAR. 51 

" The pride of heraldry, the pomp of power, 
All that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, 

Await alike the inevitable hour — 

The paths of glory lead but to the grave." 

Let us so live that, when our summons comes, we 
may be prepared for the great change, and may leave 
behind us a name and an example that shall be ten- 
derly cherished by our friends, and proudly held up to 
our successors as worthy of their imitation. 

Hon. A. W. Buel spoke at length in reference to the 
distinguished professional career of Mr. Van Dyke — 
the abilities which marked him in private life, and the 
warm, generous qualities which endeared him to those 
who knew him in private life. 

Several other members of the Bar addressed the 
meeting, after which the resolutions were unanimously 
adopted. 

On the suggestions of the President, that several 
other public bodies would attend the obsequies, Wm. 
Gray, J. V. Campbell and Levi Bishop were appointed 
a committee of arrangements. 

On motion of Wm. Hale, Esq., it was 

Resolved, That the President be requested to present a copy of 
these proceedings to the Supreme Court and the U. S. Circuit Court. 

On motion of Hon. Wm. A. Cook, it was 

Resolved, That the proceedings be published in the daily papers. 

On motion, the meeting adjourned. 



52 PROCEEDINGS OF THE COMMON COUNCIL. 

COMMON COUNCIL. 

At a session of the Common Council of the city of 
Detroit, held Tuesday, May 8th, 1855, Alderman Lan- 
sing addressed the Council as follows: 

Mr. Mayor and Gentlemen of the Council : It is no 
common or trifling cause that compels me to address 
you. While the elements are shrouded, and ill winds 
and stormy tempests chill our bodies, a still darker 
cloud and tempest of sorrow assails our hearts. Gen- 
tlemen, our friend, the friend of our beloved city, the 
friend of the friendless, the eloquent advocate, the 
honest politician, the true man — James A. Van Dyke, 
is no more ! Stricken down by a parent's grief at the 
loss of his beloved children, after an illness of but 
comparatively short duration, he has passed away from 
us forever! It is not unmanly for us to weep. Hu- 
manity mourns the departure of such men, and our 
city is called upon to testify her appreciation of his 
short, though brilliant career. What has he not done 
among us? Ask the profession of which he was a 
most distinguished member — ask that noble band of 
generous men, our Firemen, whose association, erected, 
fostered and advanced by him, is an honor to our 
city — ask that awed multitude who to-day mourn 
him as their friend and brother. 

Gentlemen, I bear this testimonial to his merits, and 



PKOCEEDINGS OF THE COMMON COUNCIL. 53 

look for such action as will testify our sense of this great 
loss. While it has been your lot to see him in his public 
life, and admire him as the lawyer and the orator, it 
has been my happy privilege to be with him more in- 
timately in his home circle, amid his once happy 
family, and to claim him as my relation and warm 
friend. Alas, Gentlemen, while we sit here to pass on 
his character, and pay tribute to his virtues, in that 
cheerless home, now bereft of his affectionate care and 
watchful love, a desolate wife and orphaned children 
send forth the wail of bitter woe. No more shall that 
voice which, in times past, has sounded trumpet- tongued 
on our ears, again waken the heart. That voice is 
silent in death; that heart that beat responsive to 
every high and glorious emotion is pulseless and cold. 
In the pride of his days and the sunny hour of life's 
success, the fiat has gone forth, and he has joined the 
throng of the early dead. 

Mr. Mayor, it is proper that in this connection I 
should give a brief narrative of the life of our distin- 
guished friend. 

James A. Van Dyke was the son of Wm. Van Dyke, 
of Mercersburg, Pa. He was born in Franklin Co., 
Pa., in December, 1813; graduated from Madison Col- 
lege, N. Y., in July, 1832; studied law in Hagerstown, 
Md., with Mr. Price; was admitted to the bar with 
high honor there, and came to Detroit in the spring of 



54 PROCEEDINGS OF THE COMMON COUNCIL. 

1834. Here he entered the office of Hon. A. D. Fraser, 
and was admitted to the Bar in 1835. In 1835-6 he 
formed a copartnership with Hon. Charles Whipple, 
which was continued until the latter went on to the 
Bench. He was appointed City Attorney in 1835, and 
in 1840 received the appointment of Prosecuting At- 
torney of Wayne Co., which office he held for two 
years. Afterwards he formed a connection with Eben- 
ezer Harrington, which was dissolved by the death of 
the latter. Subsequently he entered into copartnership 
with H. H. Emmons, Esq., which continued till Mr. E. 
went south. Since then, he was not actively engaged 
in practice, but took the solicitorship of the Michigan 
Central Railroad Company, in which he died. 

He was Secretary of the Detroit Bar for the last 
fifteen years; was Alderman of the city in 1843 and 
1844, and Mayor in the year 1847. He was also Presi- 
dent of the Young Men's Society, and President of 
the Fire Department for five years, and chiefly origi- 
nated the charter and planned the erection of Fire- 
men's Hall. At the time of his death he was one of 
the Board of Water Commissioners. 

Such in brief is his history. In view of all these 

facts I offer the following, and move their unanimous 

adoption : 

Whereas, This Council have heard with regret of the sudden death 
of the Hon. James A. Yan Dyke, which occurred at his residence in 
this city yesterday ; 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE COMMON COUNCIL. 55 

And Whereas, He was one of our most prominent, able and use- 
ful citizens, long resident among us, and identified with our every 
interest ; 

And Whereas, He was elected Mayor of this city in the year 1847, 
and discharged the duties of that distinguished office with zeal and 
ability, and satisfactorily to all good citizens ; 

And Whereas, He occupied for several years the highly honorable 
post of President of the Fire Department of this city ; therefore, 

Resolved, That in this sudden afflictive event, we are called on to 
mourn the loss of the city's benefactor, the earnest friend of our 
general interests, the honest and fearless counsellor, the upright 
statesman, the impassioned and brilliant orator, the defender of the 
oppressed, the worthy and distinguished citizen; that, in whatever 
position placed, he has honored it, and left behind him a name stain- 
less and irreproachable, and a memory bright with the halo of a 
gifted and honorable career. 

Resolved, That the members of this Council sincerely and deeply 
sympathize with the family and relatives of the deceased in this, the 
hour of affliction, and that, in token of their respect to his memory, 
they will, with all the officers of the Council, attend his funeral. 

Resolved, That the Fire Department be invited to unite with the 
Council in this last token of respect to their former beloved and 
respected President. 

Resolved, That the City Clerk be, and is hereby instructed to send 
a copy of these proceedings to the family of the deceased. 
Adopted. 

By Alderman King, 

Whereas, By the decease of the Hon. J. A. Van Dyke, the Fire 
Department has lost its best friend, through whose untiring and suc- 
cessful efforts it is mainly indebted for its present permanent basis 
and prosperous condition; and as it is becoming and proper that all 
respect should be shown to the memory of their deceased friend ; 
therefore, 



56 PEOCEEDINGS OF BOAKD OF WATER COMMISSIONERS. 

Resolved, That the Chief Engineer be requested to call out the 
different Fire Companies, each to be provided with their appropriate 
badges, on Thursday morning, to attend the funeral of the late Hon. 
J. A. Van Dyke. 

Adopted. 

The Council adjourned. 

KICHARD STARKEY, City Cleric. 



BOARD OF WATER COMMISSIONERS. 

OFFICE OF WATER WORKS, 

DETROIT, May 9, 1855. 

At a special meeting of the Board of Water Com- 
missioners of the city of Detroit, held Wednesday, 
May 9, 1855, the President, after briefly stating the 
object of convening the Board, presented the following 
preamble and resolutions, which were adopted : 

Whereas, This Board has learned, with emotions of profound regret, 
of the death of the Hon, James A. Van Dyke, which took place at 
midnight, on Monday last; and whereas, Mr. Van Dyke has been a 
member of this Board from the time of its organization ; therefore, 

Resolved, That in his death, his associates in office feel the inflic- 
tion of a heavy blow, which strikes down from our midst, an active, 
zealous and sagatious coadjutor in the discharge of responsible duty. 

Resolved, That in this event the members of this Board are affected 
by emotions to which no formal resolutions can give adequate ex- 
pression ; but which, justly to appreciate, require the acquaintance 
which long and intimate association alone can give, with the graces of 
life, the warm and generous heart, and the bold and vigorous traits 
which marked the character of the deceased. 

Resolved, That, as this city presents durable monuments of the 
energy and public spirit of our deceased associate, as well as of con- 
stancy and devotedness in the performance of public duty, we record 



PROCEEDINGS OF DETROIT YOUNG MEN'S SOCIETY. 57 



this memorial, less as an act necessary to his memory, than as a most 
grateful tribute of sorrowing and affectionate regard for one around 
whose name cluster associations of kindness and genial social inter- 
course. 

Resolved, That we join our fellow citizens in a just expression of 
sorrow at our great and mutual loss of one whose hand, heart and 
principles were over-strong, diligent, courageous and inflexible, and 
whose daily associations were such as to leave behind him those 
recollections only which respect and affection love to linger upon and 
cherish. 

Resolved, That we offer to Mrs. Yan Dyke our condolence under 
her irreparable loss, conscious though we are of the inadequacy of 
such a tribute to one whose loss trancends all others. 

Resolved, That the office of these works be closed, and all business 
on the works be suspended during the day of the funeral, and that 
we will join with the Common Council in attending the funeral. 

Resolved, That the foregoing resolutions be published in our city 
papers, and a copy signed by the Board furnished to Mrs. Van Dyke 
and the father of the deceased. 

EDMUND A. BRUSH, 
SHUBAEL OONANT, , 
HENRY LEDYARD, 
WILLIAM R. NOYES, 
ROB'T E. ROBERTS, Secretary. 



DETROIT YOUNG MEN'S SOCIETY. 

At a meeting of the Board of the Young Men's 
Society, held on Wednesday, May 9th, 1855, the Pre- 
sident, Charles I. Walker, Esq., announced the decease 
of the Hon. James A. Yan Dyke, former President of 
the society; whereupon a Committee of three was 



58 PROCEEDINGS OF FIEE DEPARTMENT. 

appointed, to report resolutions expressive of the sense 
of the Board. 

The President appointed Messrs. L. L. Jones, H. P. 
Baldwin and Wm, Jennison as such Committee, who 
reported the following resolutions, which were unani- 
mously adopted : 

Whereas, we have learned with much sorrow the death of Hon. 
James A. Van Dyke, one of the most active and useful members of 
this society, and formerly its President ; therefore be it 

Resolved, That we deplore the death of our departed friend and 
Ex-President of the society as a great loss to the society, of which 
he was for many years one of its most active and useful members, 
as President, member of the board and society, ever ready to take 
an active part in its duties and to promote its prosperity. 

Resolved, That we deeply sympathize with the bereaved family, 
and tender them the expression of our sincere sorrow for their great 
loss and of our wishes for their welfare. 

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be transmitted to Mrs. 
Van Dyke by the Secretary, and extended in full on the records. 

Resolved, That, as a token of our sorrow and of our sincere respect 
for the deceased, the society be requested to attend his funeral in a 
body, wearing the customary badge of mourning. 

S. Gr. C ASKE Y, Secretary pro tem. 



FIRE DEPARTMENT. 

FIKEMEFS HALL, 

DETROIT, May 9th, 1855. 

At a meeting of the Fire Department convened by 
the President, who in a few appropriate remarks an- 
nounced the mournful fact of the death of our late 
esteemed President, James A. Yan Dyke, Esq., and 



PROCEEDINGS OF FIRE DEPARTMENT. 59 

that the Department had been convened to make 
arrangements for attending his funeral to-morrow 
morning; whereupon the following gentlemen were 
appointed a committee to report appropriate resolu- 
tions expressive of the sense of the Department: 
R. E. Roberts, John Owen, Fred. Buhl, John Webster 
and Oliver Bourke. 

The following committees were also appointed; 

On Arrangements: R. T. Elliott, Wm. Duncan and 
Oliver Bourke. 

On Eulogy, to be delivered in the Hall to-morrow: 
Wm. Barclay, T. S. Gillett and J. J. Pvhodes, who, 
after a short absence, reported that D. B. Duffield, 
Esq., had consented to pronounce the eulogy. 

May 10th, 1855, 9 o'clock A. M. 
The Committee on Resolutions reported the follow- 
ing preamble and resolutions : 

Whereas, Death has suddenly stricken from our midst the Hon. 
James A. Van Dyke, late President of this Department during five 
successive terms, in the strength and beauty of his manhood's prime 
and full intellectual powers ; 

And whereas. The long and useful connection of the deceased with 
this Department renders an expression of the estimation in which he 
was held by us, eminently fitting at this time ; therefore, 

Resolved, That in the death of Mr. Yan Dyke, the Fire Department 
of Detroit has lost one of its benefactors ; that his name is so closely 
interwoven with its fortunes, from its origin, as a benevolent and 
chartered organization, through the vicissitudes of its early and pre- 
carious existence, until its successful and triumphant development as 



60 PROCEEDINGS OF FIRE DEPARTMENT. 

one of the permanent institutions of the city, that it may with truth 
be said, that its history is almost comprised within the limits of his 
active participation in its affairs. 

Resolved, That not only as a benevolent institution, whose highest 
perfection for usefulness, and whose perpetuity he loved to contem- 
plate and promote, is this department indebted to the exertions of 
their late beloved President, but that as individual Firemen and 
members of one organization for the protection of the city, as such 
we also owe his memory gratitude ; that he always did all in his 
power, whether during the discussion of exciting topics, involving the 
interest of the Firemen of the city, or at the grave of the humblest 
member of the body, to strengthen the unity and preserve the integ- 
rity of our fellowship by appeals to our best feelings as men and to 
our regard for duty as Firemen and citizens. 

Resolved, That, as a Fireman beginning and serving his full term 
in one of the companies of this city, his aim seemed to be rather to 
discharge well the duties of a private, than to accept the proffered 
honors of this company, save as a Trustee in the board. But of those 
duties he had a high appreciation, deeming it a worthy ambition, as 
inculcated by him on the occasion of an address to the Department, 
"to dedicate oneself to the work with heart brave and steadfast, 
tenacious of obedience to law and order, with an elevated and stern 
determination to tread only the paths of rectitude." 

Resolved^ That as citizens of Detroit also, on whose bright and 
hitherto unstained escutcheon our volunteer Fire Department has 
been a prominent feature, we have lost in him a public spirited friend 
and officer, who for a fifth of a century more or less directly con- 
cerned in the administration of its affairs, vigilantly watched and 
promoted the city's growth, and extended freely at all times safe and 
judicious counsel to its agents and officers. 

Resolved^ That this Department will now proceed to attend the 
funeral of the deceased, and that they will in a body accompany his 
remains to their last resting place. 

Resolved) That the Hall be dressed in mourning outside during the 
day of the funeral, and the interior for thirty days thereafter. 



PROCEEDINGS OF FIRE DEPARTMENT. 61 

Resolved, That these resolutions be published in the city papers, 
and a copy thereof transmitted to the family of the deceased. 

The Committee also reported the following, which 
were adopted: 

Whereas, The address delivered by the late Hon. James Van 
Dyke before the Department, on the seventh day of January, 1 853, 
contains a full history of this Department, and to a great extent the 
history of our city, and many very valuable suggestions for our future 
guidance ; 

Resolved, That the Trustees be and are hereby requested to have 
the address, together with a memorial of the life and character of our 
late esteemed President, printed in pamphlet form and gratuitously 
circulated among the members of this Department. 

The Department was then formed under the direc- 
tion of the Chief Engineer, and proceeded to the City 
Hall, where they were joined by the Mayor and Com- 
mon Council, when they proceeded to the late residence 
of the deceased, and accompanied his remains to St. 
Ann's Church, after which they returned, accompanied 
by the members of the Bar and Common Council, to 
the Firemen's Hall, where, after a dirge was performed 
by Dodsworth's Band, they listened to an eulogy by D. 
B. Duffield, Esq., at the conclusion of which, on motion 
of Gen. Levi Cook, the thanks of the Department were 
tendered to Mr. Duffield, and a Committee, consisting 
of one from each of the several Fire Companies, was 
appointed to request of him a copy of the eulogy for 
publication. 

The Department then formed and joined the funeral 



62 



PROCEEDINGS OF FIRE DEPARTMENT. 



procession at the church, and accompanied the remains 
to Mount Elliott Cemetery. 

At a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Fire 

Department, held May 28th, 1855, it was, on motion 

of John Webster, Esq., 

Resolved, That a Committee of five be appointed, consisting of 
Wm. Duncan, R. E. Roberts, E. N. Wilcox, R. T. Elliott and B. 
Vernor, whose duty it shall be to superintend the publication of the 
memoir to James A. Van Dyke, Esq., and that one thousand copies 
be procured. 






CORRESPONDENCE. 



LETTER OF THE PRESIDENT OF FIRE DEPARTMENT 

TO R. HOSMER, ESQ., AND REPLY. 

DETROIT, August 1st, 1855. 

Rufus Hosmer, Esa. 

The Fire Department of the City of Detroit, having 
resolved to procure and publish a memoir of the late 
Hon. James A. Yan Dyke, the duty of carrying their 
resolution into effect is devolved upon the undersigned. 
In looking around me among the surviving friends of 
the deceased, permit me to say that my eyes involun- 
tarily turn to you, sir, as the one of all others of Mr. 
Van Dyke's friends to whom a request to write a 
sketch of his life can most appropriately he addressed. 
Honored by that intercourse with him which never 
failed to attach intimately and warmly all those who 
enjoyed it — congenial in many of those tastes which 
characterized him — your opportunities for acquiring 
that knowledge of the man which can render justice 
to his character ; and possessing eminently the ability 



64 CORRESPONDENCE. 



to do so, I doubt not that the trust will be a labor of 
love, and that you will therefore cheerfully accede to 
the request. 

Very respectfully, 

JOHN PATTON, 

President of Fire Department. 

DETROIT, January 1st, 1856. 

Dear Sir:— Pursuant to your request, I have pre- 
pared a brief memorial of the late Hon. James A. Van 
Dyke. My relations with the deceased, while they 
were such as to furnish every incentive to aid in honor- 
ing his memory, have made the duty to which I have 
had the honor to be assigned, one of melancholy 
pleasure. I can only regret that the nature of my 
avocations is such as to preclude me from such a 
tribute to his memory, as his genius, his usefulness 
and his high character demand. 

With great respect I am yours, 

R. HOSMER. 
Jno. Patton, Esq,. 



LETTER OF THE PRESIDENT OF FIRE DEPARTMENT 

TO D. B. DUFFIELD, ESQ., AND REPLY. 

DETROIT, June 8th, 1855. 

D. Bethune Duffield, Esq. 

Dear Sir: — The biography of our late worthy Pre- 
sident, the Hon. James A. Van Dyke, is now being 



CORRESPONDENCE. 65 



prepared for the press, for the use of the Fire Depart- 
ment, and in connection with it they are desirous of 
having published also the eulogy recently delivered by 
you before them. 

Will it be convenient and agreeable to you to furnish 
us with a copy? 

Yours respectfully, 



S. C. COLE, Secretary. 



JOHN PATTON, President. 



DETROIT, June 9th, 1855. 



John Patton, Esq,., 

President of Fire Department. 

Dear Sir: — In reply to your note soliciting for 
publication a copy of the eulogy recently pronounced 
by me, before the Fire Department, upon our much 
lamented friend and brother, James A. Van Dyke, Esq., 
I have only to say that it was prepared at a very few 
hours' notice, and with no view to publication ; yet as 
the Department desire it, and if it will in any way 
tend to keep fresh among us the many virtues that 
adorned both the public and private life of Mr. Van 
Dyke, I cheerfully comply with your request on their 
behalf. 

Respectfully yours, &c. f 

D. BETHUNE DUFFIELD. 



66 COEEESPONDENCE. 



LETTER FROM CITIZENS PRESENTING ENGRAVING. 
To John Patton, Esq., 

President of the Fire Department of the City of Detroit. 

Sir: — As the incumbent of that office, which the 
late Hon. James A. Van Dyke filled so long, with such 
usefulness to the Fire Department of the City of De- 
troit, and with such distinction to himself, the under- 
signed deem it most fitting to address you their pre- 
sent request. We therefore, respectfully ask you to 
accept in the name of the institution he so loved, while 
living, and which, now that he is no more, so affection- 
ately cherishes his memory, the enclosed steel engrav- 
ing of Mr. Yan Dyke, from a daguerreotype taken four 
years before his death. 

It is fitting that the form and features of the man 
who 

" In a general honest thought 

And common good to all, made one of them," 

should accompany the testimonial which the Firemen 
of Detroit are preparing to their departed friend. His 
words of counsel, his deeds of daring, his acts of be- 
nevolence, his friendship, his sympathy, his eloquence, 
have embalmed him in their hearts ; but when in the 
silent lapse of years, all but the fragrant memory of 
these shall have passed from their minds, when the 
looks that breathed shall have faded into dimness, we 





CORRESPONDENCE. 


67 


would have this faithful picture 


recall him to their 


vision, re-invested with life and 


glowing with good 


thoughts. 






We have the honor, sir, to subscribe ourselves, 


DAVID SMART, 


C. W. JACKSON, 


R. P. TOMS, 


A. D. FRASER, 


JEFFERSON WILEI 


', WM. R. NOYES, 


E. A. BRUSH, 


T. W. LOCKWOOD, 


M. H. WEBSTER, 


H. N. WALKER, 


R. N. RICE, 


T. H. HINCHMAN, 


HENRY LEDYARD, 


W. INGERSOLL, 


J, HOUGHTON, Jk. 


H. H. EMMONS, 


G. V. N. LOTHROP, 


L. H. COBB, 


E. N. WILCOX, 


D. B. DUFFIELD, 


TOM S. GILLETT, 


JOHN OWEN, 


G. T. SHELDON, 


KIN S. DYGERT, 


Z. PITCHER, 


R. H. HALL, 


A. RICHMOND, 


GEORGE JEROME, 


R. HOSMER, 


F. BACKUS, 


M. A. CHASE, 


CHAS. RICHMOND, 


EDW. LE FAVOUR, 


J. C. PARSONS, 


J. H. HARMON, 


A. H. STOWELL, 


ROB'T E. ROBERTS, 


J. M. HOWARD, 


C. I. WALKER, 


S. D. ELWOOD, 


Z. CHANDLER, 


C. J. TROMBLY, 


E. V. CICOTT, 


THEO. WILLIAMS, 


R. W. KING, 


S. P. BRADY, 


B. F. HYDE, 


MARK FLANAGAN, 


H. P. BALDWIN, 


J. P. MANSFIELD, 


P. ASPINALL, 


E. A. LANSING, 


J. V. CAMPBELL, 


E. C. WALKER, 


WM. GRAY, 


J. H. FARNS WORTH, 0. NEWBERRY, 


J. P. C. EMMONS, 


0. B. DIBBLE, 


H. H. LEROY, 


A. J. FRASER, 


J. W. SUTTON, 


F. BUHL, 


P. TELLER, 


H. W. NEWBERRY, 


A. MANDELL, 


F. E. ELDRED, 


JOHN ATKINSON, 


R. R. ELLIOTT, 


S. G. WIGHT, 


F. W. BACKUS, 


J. L. LYELL, 


P. DESNOYERS, 


H. A. WIGHT, 


E. FARNSWORTH, 


D. J. CAMPAU, 


S. CONANT, 


JOHN WINDER, 


P. TREGENT, 


GEO. E. HAND, 


A. W. BUEL. 


WM. HALE, 






January 5, 1856. 









ADDRESS, 



DELIVERED BY 



HON. JAMES A. VAN DYKE, 

BEFORE THE FIRE DEPARTMENT, 
In the Firemen's Hall, City of Detroit, Jan. 7th, 1858. 



Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Fwe Department : 

1 appear before you this evening, not with ample 
preparation ; not to flash with wit, or to kindle with 
eloquence ; not to weave garlands of flowers ; and with 
no intellectual festive Board, covered with genial fruit, 
to tempt your appetites, or to gratify your tastes. I 
come from the noise and bustle, the strife and exac- 
tions of daily life, with but little time for thought, and 
none for careful arrangement, or mature revision. I 
come with the dust from life's weary pathway still on 
my garments; from these paths of toil and passion 
where the footsteps too soon crush the sympathies of 
soul and sense. And yet I come with pleasure, because 
I come at your bidding, to perform a duty. 

It is fitting that one of the objects of your associa- 
tion — the intellectual improvement of its members — 



70 ADDEESS, DELIVEEED BEFOEE THE 

should no longer be thwarted or delayed ; and that this 
species of exercise, fraught as we hope with pleasure 
and profit in the future, should commence. 

Feeling, therefore, that it is better to begin even 
with an humble effort than not to begin at all, I cheer- 
fully take the initiative, with the full conviction that 
subsequent efforts will at least repay your time and 
attention. 

I have chosen for my theme this evening, 

"The Fire Department of the City of Detroit — its Past, 
Present and Future. 

I have not chosen it as a subject well adapted to in- 
tellectual display, or calculated, perhaps, deeply to 
interest an audience. It will not admit of dramatic 
incident, or scientific research; the age of romance 
does not invest it with haughty warrior or gloomy 
hermit ; the attic muse does not sing its ransom ; nor 
do mouldering epitaphs point out its graves. Still it 
had its origin and its progress, it has its past and its 
present; and though its annals may be found short and 
simple, yet they will not be found devoid of usefulness 
and honor. 

I have chosen this theme, because it has been sug- 
gested to me by others, and occurs to myself, that at 
the opening of this fine hall for the first time, for a 
series of lectures, it would be appropriate to trace, 



FIRE DEPARTMENT OF DETROIT. 71 

even if with a hurried pen, that past of our depart- 
ment, which led to its prosperous present, and points 
with so much hope to the future. 

I have chosen it because, let it be to others as it 
may, it is a subject, by association, fondness and pride, 
of deep and abiding interest to me ; because with a 
portion of its past I can claim a part ; because I have 
helped to rock its cradle ; have witnessed the strength 
and ardor of its manhood; and here with you to- 
night, standing in this pride of its place, on this 
column of its strength, I am permitted to mingle my 
congratulations, recollections and hopes with yours. 
And until memory and life are quenched in the lethean 
spring, the honors I have received from this Depart- 
ment, and the friendships which bind me to it, will 
linger and live and glow in my bosom. * * * * 

It is an interesting period of the year to be speaking 
of the past, present and future of any thing. We 
have just passed the bridge of time; the light of an 
old year has just glimmered out ; its winter's wind has 
wailed its departure, and its snow whitened its new 
made grave. It is passed; and time appears to re- 
new its youth, with the birth of a new year. Glad- 
ness and music seem almost to burst from the tomb of 
the past. We awake again ; collect anew our strength ; 
and with fresh oars, pursue our way over the voyage 
of life. 



72 ADDRESS, DELIVERED BEFORE THE 

And yet how pathless, mournful and profound is the 
past of time! It comes down to us hoary with so 
many years ! It has seen the dawn of creation, and 
the first gleam of light, which at the voice of its God, 
lit up the obscure earth ; it lingers mid the bliss of 
paradise, and sighs over its ruins ; it was present when 
angels announced the incarnation of a God to his virgin 
mother, when legions of angels shouted at His birth, 
and when earth and sky paled and grew affright at His 
death ! The Past ! It contains the history of human 
joys and sorrows, in languages now long obsolete ; it 
attended the birth of nations and their destruction; 
it has walked through the revolutions of earth and the 
ruins of empires ! What terrors, sorrows, wonders, joy 
and tears are buried in the bosom of the past. Its 
voice comes down to us like the wail of spirits through 
its solemn centuries. 

Yet when we look back how impossible to trace with 
distinctness the mysterious past, mighty as the foot- 
prints are which it has left on this earth of ours ! 

We hear the loud surges sweep back in their swell ; 

Their coming the thunder sound heralds along. 
Strain'd eyes yet are tracking the spot where they fell. 

He comes, the wild Past, in tumult and throng, 
Boaring up to the cliff, waving back as before ; 

But no wave e'er brings back the lost Past to the shore. 

But I turn from the mightier past of time to the 
more immediate subject of my lecture. 



FIEE DEPARTMENT OF DETROIT. (6 

Notwithstanding the claims- to high antiquity of our 
worthy puritan brethren, who will doubtless, by the 
time of their next anniversary, " guess" that the rock 
of Plymouth is the very father of rocks, yet be it 
known that this, our beautiful City of Detroit, looks 
back to a local habitation, and a name to a time 
coeval with the landing of the pilgrims, for at as 
early a period the aborigines of the country, with that 
sagacity which characterized their selection of choice 
places, had chosen it as a site for their village, and 
given it the name of Waa-we-a-to-nong. 

A few wandering Jesuits, with unwearied zeal, had 
found their way hither as early as 1610; but it was 
legitimately founded by La Motte Cadillac in 1701, who 
at that time erected here a fort. A change has come 
over it since then ! What must have been the sensa- 
tions of the earliest white men who, emerging from 
the wide waters of Lake Erie, found themselves as- 
cending the river Detroit, which deep, swift and blue, 
rolled through the primeval forest that fringed its banks 
even to the very edge. Above the venturous voyager, 
there was the bright sky, around him the hush of 
nature, save when disturbed by the stirring branch or 
some voice from the wilderness, making the solitude 
more palpable ; the signs and hum of civilization were 
all absent, but there came from the shore the breath of 
flowers, and from the breeze murmuring through the 



74 ADDRESS, DELIVERED BEFORE THE 

woods, the harmony of nature. How the full heart of the 
stranger, resting on suspended oar, must have beat with 
wild rapture at the solemn beauty of the scene ; or if, 
perchance, it was in the dusky eve when he first ap- 
proached it, and saw the ruddy light reflecting from 
the shore, and heard the savage yell or the wild beasts' 
fiercer voice ; yet rested, till with the deepening watches 
of the night, silence resumed her sway, and the stars 
looked down on the impressive picture, there must have 
come over the gazer feelings akin to those which moved 
Chateaubriand to tears, as he knelt at midnight near 
the shores of Niagara, to worship God, within the 
sound of the unending requiem of the cataract. 

It could not but be interesting to a Detroit audience 
for one competent to the task and animated by love 
for it, to sketch the origin and progress of this now 
large and beautiful city. It would constitute, when 
completed, a picture of rich and varied hues. No sub- 
ject could be more fraught with incident, character, 
freshness and all that could animate the local historian, 
or delight his local reader. Its early foundation was 
in the bosom of the deep forest; the rich fruits and 
fresh beauties of nature were lavish around it; it was 
severed by distance and difficulty, almost entirely from 
the civilized portions of the country; the light hearted 
Canadian, free from ambition, void of care, reckless of 
toil; and the Indian, in all his perfect development, 



FERE DEPARTMENT OF DETROIT. 75 

were its occupants. How interesting it would be to 
tell of the perils, privations and wars which surrounded 
its earlier days; to recount the dark legends of its 
fights, and the lighter story of its loves; to whisper 
names still familiar to us in the persons of their de- 
scendants, and who in their time were famed for all the 
stern virtues and lofty daring, which in the days of 
chivalry would have gained them rich applause and 
lofty song. The bard and the historian may pass them 
by now in silence, but those who are enjoying not only 
their names, but the fruits of their toil and blood, 
should keep their memories alive. 

How interesting it would be to contrast the miser- 
able degraded Indian of the present day with the 
proud and noble savage who once roamed over these 
scenes — free as the wind that fanned his native woods, 
to describe the daring, the sagacity, the eloquence, the 
patriotism and prowess of Pontiac. 

B Is strength a monarch's merit, like a whaler's ? 

Thou wert as tall, as sinewy and as strong. 
As earth's first Kings — the Argo's gallant sailors, 

Heroes in history — -and gods in song. 

Is Eloquence ? Her spell was thine that reaches 
The heart, and makes the wisest head its sport, 

And there's one rare, strange virtue in thy speeches, 
The secret of their mastery — they were short. 

At thy bidding men have crowded 
The road to death as to a festival. 



76 ADDRESS, DELIVERED BEFORE THE 

With look, like patient Job's, eschewing evil, 

With motions graceful as a bird's in air, 
Thou wert in sober truth the veriest devil 

That e'er clinched fingers in a captive's hair. 

And underneath that face, like summer oceans, 
Its lip as moveless, and its cheek as clear, 

Slumbers a whirlwind of the heart's emotions, 
Love, hatred, pride, hope, sorrow; all save fear. 

Love for thy land, as if she were thy daughter, 
Her pipe in peace, her tomahawk in wars : 

Hatred of missionaries and cold water, 
Pride in thy rifle trophies and thy scars. 

Hope that thy wrong might be by the Great Spirit 
Remembered and revenged when thou wert lone, 

Sorrow that none were left thee to inherit 

Thy name, thy fame, thy passions and thy throne." 

It would, indeed, be a pleasing task to read the story 
of Detroit through all the shifting scenes, of her vary- 
ing drama, down through her changes of government, 
laws and races, from the Indian war drum, dance and 
wigwam till now, when there bursts on the vision a 
proud city, teeming with population, thronged with 
commerce and labor, adorned with all the arts of peace 
and the sweets of benevolence, gemmed with church 
and school house, encircled by religion and law, with 
heaven's richest blessings overhanging her present, 
and with her horizon flushed with hope and promise. 

What a change has brief time worked ! 



FIRE DEPARTMENT OF DETROIT* 77 

" I see thee yet, fair scene — a lovely land, 
Wild in thy nature, thou art still before me ; 
Thy sons to whom their perils were a sport, 
Thy sun- bur Dt daughters, with their laughing eyes 
And glossy raven locks. But, land of my dream, 
Thou 'rt vanished with the changing years." 

Yes- — all is vanished; the forest is felled, the In- 
dian's council fire has gone out, the wigwam has dis- 
appeared, and even the old wind-mill and pear tree 
linger with a decay and ruin which sadden the retro- 
spect, 

But I must leave the tempting field, indulging in 
the hope, that some one will, ere long, with willing 
wand conjure up for us the rich past of the City of 
the Straits. 

Detroit was at an early period of its existence 
threatened with destruction from fire. In 1704, the 
Indians, instigated thereto, as it was said,, by the Eng- 
lish, made the attempt to fire it, and partially suc- 
ceeded. At a later period the Fox Indians renewed 
the attempt, but were repulsed. 

In 1763, the intrepid warrior whom we have already 
alluded to, turned all his fierce energies to accomplish 
its ruin, but failed after besieging it for nearly a year. 

In 1805, the fearful element you are organized to 
combat, broke out with its fury, revelled at its pleasure, 
and stopped not till the ashes of a burnt town were all 



78 ADDRESS, DELD7EEED BEFORE THE 

that marked its site, save one house only, standing up 
like a bleak monument amid the ruin. There are still 
among us those who witnessed the fearful sight, and 
from whom you have doubtless heard a full recital. 
At this time the site of Detroit was comprised within 
the following limits: Griswold street on the East, 
Wayne street on the West, Lamed street on the 
North and the River on the South. The Fort was in 
the rear of the old town, where Shelby crosses Fort 
street ; was enclosed with the town by pickets, and 
on the inside of the pickets was a road running round 
the old town, called " Chemin de Ronde." The Navy 
Yard was at the foot of Woodward avenue ; the only 
wharf was the public wharf near the foot of Wayne 
street. 

The means and ability existing at this time to pro- 
tect the town from fire and to combat so fearful a foe, 
were but little adequate to the purpose. No gallant 
brigade of devoted men, trained to the service, ani- 
mated by devotion to the public good, then slept on 
their arms to guard the town ; no well appointed en- 
gine then leaped forth at the bell's first tocsin, or the 
fire's first gush, manned for the fight and eager for the 
combat. The bucket was the great safeguard, and the 
fiery scourge laughed at its feeble efficiency. A small 
and illy contrived engine, impotent for good, was how- 
ever, even at this day kept in the garrison. 



FIRE DEPARTMENT OF DETROIT. 79 

The municipal authority, warned by the fierce lesson 
they had first learned, made preparations for a kind of 
organization in event of new fires, as can be seen by 
reference to the by-laws and ordinances passed on the 
occasion, providing therein for Bucket, Bag, Axe and 
Battering-ram Companies ; that each house should have 
a ladder and keep on hand a given quantity of water. 
And when a fire occurred, the inhabitants seized their 
buckets and yokes, rushed to the river, and with a full 
bucket at each end of the yoke, which was placed on 
the shoulder, hastened to the scene of danger, bending 
down like Issachar of old between two burdens. And 
these simple means continued their only reliance for 
the extinguishment of fires until the close of the war 
of 1812, when the first Fire Company was by authority 
organized in the city, the engine being one taken from 
the flag-ship of Commodore Perry. 

And from this small beginning, has there sprung 
and grown the Fire Department of the City of Detroit, 
with its numerous engines and companies, with its 
efficient and valuable Board of Fire Wardens, with its 
five hundred active members, with its zeal and worth, 
with its daring and its devotedness, keeping watch and 
ward through the hours of the day and the vigils of 
the night, in spite of the burning heat or the winter's 
storm — rich in this beautiful and munificent gift of 
their fellow citizens, but richer still in the esteem and 



80 ADDRESS, DELD7ERED BEFORE THE 

respect which good conduct and valiant deeds have 
fairly won for them. 

Gallant Perry ! Honor to the brave ! It is but fit- 
ting for us, who stand almost in sight of the field of his 
glory, to pay a passing tribute to him who, on the clear 
waters of Lake Erie, mid the flash of the cannon, and 
on the blood-soaked deck of his ship, held aloft the flag 
of his country, radiant with fresh triumph and glory ! 

The engine from Perry's flag-ship, continued the 
only one used until the year 1825, when the then 
Mayor of the City of Detroit procured an engine from 
Mr. James Smith, father of the present James Smith, 
who has recently furnished new and admirable en- 
gines for the use of the Department. The then Mayor 
of the City of Detroit, to whom I allude, was a gentle- 
man still living, honored amongst us; then, and ever 
mindful of the interests of a city he deeply loves; and 
I know the pleasure it will ever give the members of 
this Department to hear announced among them the 
name of their consistent and generous friend and pat- 
ron, General John R. Williams. 

This engine, so procured in 1825, was called engine 
No. 1, and given to Protection Company, and subse- 
quently passed successively into the hands of Wolverine 
No. 3, La Fayette, No. 4, Phoenix, No % 5, Mechanics', 
No. 8, and Pioneer, No. 9. 

Honor to "the old machine." It has been long de- 



FIEE DEPARTMENT OF DETROIT. 81 

voted to the cold water cause, and though often pres- 
ent at scenes, to my certain knowledge, which Father 
Mathew could scarcely have approved, was never yet 
known to break its pledge, or fail in its duty. 

The following named gentlemen have respectively 
filled the ofiice of Chief Engineer of the Fire Depart- 
ment: Levi Cook, Henry V. Disbrow, Theodore Wil- 
liams, Chauncy Hurlbut, Mathew Gooding, Henry 
H. LeRoy, James Stewart, William Barclay, William 
Duncan, L. H. Cobb, and its present worthy incumbent, 
John Patton— names known and honored in our midst, 
and all of whom still survive, save one only, and he 
one of the noblest of our whole brotherhood! 

Let memory loose to do her office, and how soon 
can we recall to our midst the manly form, the kind 
face, and the loved presence of Mathew Gooding. He 
died an untimely death. I had the melancholy satis- 
faction of spending by his bed-side, his last night on 
earth. He sleeps in the beautiful grounds of Elm- 
wood ; the summer's sun ripens to sweet harvest the 
flowers, which in the spring-time bloom over his 
grave, and the winter's snow whitens it in due season ; 
but he is not forgotten S His brother Firemen cherish 
his name and his memory, and well they may, " for a 
more loyal, true, or a nobler spirit, beat not in human 
bosom." 

In some countries, the Fire Department is main- 



82 ADDRESS, DELIVERED BEFORE THE 

tained at the expense of the Insurance Companies who, 
of course, re-imburse themselves by enhanced charges 
for insurance — in fact, doubling or trebling the rates. 
In others, companies are organized for the extinguish- 
ment of fires, and when a fire occurs, the owner of the 
endangered property, applying for relief, is compelled 
to pay liberally for the aid. And again, in other in- 
stances, the Government itself keeps up the organiza- 
tion, and pays the expense as it does for its military 
troops, making additional taxes, of course, therefor on 
its people. 

The voluntary system is American in its origin. A 
company on this basis having been formed by Benj. 
Franklin, in 1777, in the City of Philadelphia. This 
system is based on patriotism and friendship, and is 
peculiarly suited to the enterprise, energy and charac- 
ter of the country. It calls into the voluntary ranks 
of the firemen an intelligence, a devotedness, a lofty 
spirit of daring, and a total absence of selfishness, 
which money could not buy or hire obtain. 

The very absence of pay, or hope of reward, gives 
a sentiment to the organization, chivalric in its feeling, 
and generous in its impulse; it quickens the pulse of 
its members ; warms the tie of their association in re- 
pose, and in action touches their hearts with a fire, 
burning as that they strive to combat. Long live this 
free, voluntary system ! Long may it be before the 



FIEE DEPAETMENT OF DETEOIT. S3 

members of this Department, dead to the generous 
emotions which have heretofore animated them, fight 
only for pay, and serve only for hire ! 

It is true, it is a self-sacrificing, dangerous, and toil- 
some service! To stand ready at the first moments 
warning; whether at business or pleasure ; at church, 
or home; at midday, or midnight; to haste where the 
dark smoke or the lurid flame may point as the place 
of danger! And then to work and fight on, still on, 
while a single flame threatens destruction. And what 
a fearful scene a fire is ! The black, surging smoke as 
yet confined within its volcano; then the lambent 
flame, hissing out like the tongue of a fiery serpent; 
then the fearful roar and burst, lightening the earth and 
crimsoning the sky; the din; the shriek; the falling 
beam ; the ceaseless shout and clangor ; the wail of 
suffering, and the cry of distress ! It is indeed, as 
Napoleon said when surveying the . burning of Mos- 
cow, "an awful and sublime spectacle!" 

It is your office and duty to fight such a foe; to 
throw the aegis of your strong arms and stout hearts 
around the lives and property of your fellow citizens ; 
to cope not with the sword and the bayonet, but to 
contend with a heroism as brilliant, with a bearing as 
firm and lofty, as animates the soldier on the field of 
battle ; and though you may not receive therefor the 
laurel wreath or the eternal Dollar, you have the con- 



84: ADDKESS, DELIVERED BEFOEE THE 

ciousness of doing good, the pleasure of an unselfish 
act, and the priceless gratitude, and the warm thanks 
of the city you guard and protect. 

Our city has been frequently threatened by the deep 
danger of fire; and in comparatively recent times, on 
three occasions, it raged with a success which blanched 
the bravest, and which, but for exertions trusting and 
devoted, might have reduced the city of our pride to 
smouldering ashes. 

The first of these broke out on a tempestuous night 
in 1837, in the centre of a block of wooden buildings 
near the foot of Woodward avenue, and destroyed 
houses and personal property to a large amount. 

The second occurred in January, A. D. 1842, in an 
old wooden tavern, then standing near where the Post 
Office now is. It wound its way round the corner, and 
consumed the entire block, to which it was happily con- 
fined by dauntless effort. The third was the fearful 
fire of May, 1848, commenced by the sparks of a pro- 
peller, communicated to the large warehouse between 
Bates and Randolph streets, and at the very point 
where the great fire of 1837 was arrested. The scene 
which ensued, the extent of the calamity, the danger 
which at one time seemed to hang over the whole 
town, and the sense of relief which came to every 
heart, when the scourge ceased its course, must still be 
fresh to every recollection. 



FIRE DEPARTMENT OF DETROIT. 85 

I have thus far spoken of the active and effective 
branch of the Department. I have been compelled to 
do so, of course, generally only. I must leave it for 
the other branch, organized under a special charter. 
In doing so, I refer with pride to the fact that, hitherto 
the Firemen of Detroit have done their duty promptly, 
zealously, and courageously. Animated by humanity, 
and impelled by the elevated spirit of their profession, 
they have manned the brakes and mounted the ladder, 
at every exigency, with a will that could brook no dis- 
appointment, and a skill which was sure to triumph. 
Nor have they, in becoming Firemen, as yet forgotten 
that they were citizens. Amid all the rivalry which 
nerved each to excel ; with all the spirit which anima- 
ted their efforts, no foul wit, breach of law or contempt 
of authority have yet tarnished their well-earned 
fame. Long may they continue — bound together by 
feelings of brotherly kindness! Long may they re- 
main efficient for good, characterized by observance of 
law, by unselfish devotion to the great object of their 
calling — bearing aloft their banner, glittering with 
bright deeds, and unsullied by a single stain. 

At a meeting of the Firemen, held January 11, 
1840, a committee, appointed at a previous meeting, 
reported a constitution and by-laws, which were unani- 
mously adopted; and the first annual meeting there- 
under, was held on the 20th of the same month. The 



$6 ADDRESS, DELP7EKED BEFORE THE 

following were the first officers : Robert E. Roberts, 
President; F. Buhl, Vice President; E. R. Kearsley, 
Secretary; D. Lamson, Treasurer; and E. Goodell, 
Collector. And after Mr, Roberts, Chauncy Hurlbut, 
John Owen, David Smart, J. A. Yan Dyke, and your 
present efficient and popular incumbent, E. N. Wilcox, 
have respectively presided over the Department 

Our act of incorporation was passed and approved 
February 14, 1840, "to enable us, (in the language of 
the preamble,) the more effectually to accomplish the 
objects of our Association, and to provide means for 
the relief of disabled Firemen and their families." 

In April, 1840, our old and well tried friend Chauncy 
Hurlbut, and the late Col. D. G-. Jones, presented the 
Department a donation of $100 each, and became the 
first Honorary members ; and their generous gifts were 
the beginning of our subsequent munificent fund. The 
second moneys coming into the Treasury, were the 
avails of a steam boat excursion, on the Great West- 
ern, which in the preceding summer had been burned 
to the river's edge. 

There came in thereafter, from time to time, from 
donations, balls and exhibitions, amounts which, hand- 
some in themselves, were placed out at interest, and 
fostered with watchful care, in the anxious hope that 
these accumulations would, at some hoped for future 
day, be the basis of an annual income which would 



FERE DEPARTMENT OF DETROIT. 87 

enable the Association to effect the great purposes of 
its incorporation : the binding together its members 
with stronger affiliation, and the solace* relief and 
comfort of the disabled, the widow and the orphan. 

In 1849, notwithstanding the expenditure of con- 
siderable sums for relief, the fund was found to have 
reached some $6000. A permanent investment be- 
came desirable. The members had increased in num- 
bers, in equipments and in usefulness. They had no 
place suitable even for their ordinary meetings ; and 
all things considered, it was determined to purchase a 
lot for the erection thereon of a fit Firemen's Hall, for 
the purpose alike of convenience and permanent in- 
come. It was entrusted to the then President of the 
Department, to make the purchase; and the result was 
the securing the present valuable and central lot, on 
which the Hall now stands. 

Notwithstanding the exhaustion of the fund, by the 
purchase of the lot, it was determined to attempt 
the erection of the buildings even at the large sum 
which it was found it must cost. It was a bold, and 
perhaps elsewhere would have been found a hazardous 
undertaking. It was attempted, and by the means of 
a loan of $8000, and the voluntary and munificent aid 
of the citizens, its foundations were laid deep and 
strong, its lofty walls arose, and this admirable struc- 
ture was completed. 



88 ADDRESS, DELIVERED BEFORE THE 

Its corner stone was laid on the 4th of July, A. D. 
1850, with appropriate ceremony and with fear and 
hope. A portion of it was ready for occupancy by the 
succeeding May, and in October, 1851, it was open 
to the public. 

But how shall I tell, in fit terms, the praises of those 
who, with open hearts and free hands, came to our re- 
lief. How shall I, with language sufficiently warm, 
glow ing and heart-felt, recall to your recollections the 
names of those who, in our gloomiest hours, cheered 
us on with kind hope and material aid, to the success- 
ful consummation of our wishes. How shall I speak 
of that dark and gloomy night, at the City Hall, when 
exhausted in resourses, and discouraged in our task, 
the talent and the worth, and the fortune of our city, 
rallied at our call, and attested their appreciation of 
your services, and their sympathy with your wants, to 
the tune of thousands of dollars. It would be invidi- 
ous to particularize. I can but point you to the scroll 
of our Department, on which is written the noble list 
of our patrons. I can but call upon the hearts of the 
Firemen, on which I hope is registered in silent, but 
deep and unending gratitude, the recollection of their 
kind deeds ; and at a period when help was again re- 
quired. Never can you forget the fair faces and sweet 
forms, who came to breathe their rosy smiles, and to 
lend their kind aid for us. Forget, if you must, all 



FIRE DEPARTMENT OF DETROIT. 89 

else ; but treasure in your heart of hearts, the image 
of sweet woman, who hovered over us in our time of 
need; and in the hour of your duty, and of danger, 
let it illuminate your memories, and inspire your spirits 
with a fresh zeal and a new magic to renewed exertion. 

I would fain commemorate before you the invaluable 
services of those who were alike active and useful in 
the origination and progress of this great enterprise; 
of your Building Committee and Builder; of your once 
President and now Secretary, devoted almost his life 
long to the honor and welfare of the Department; of 
your past officers known to and appreciated by you; 
but time would not permit, even if delicacy did not 
forbid. 

Of the departed, however, it is always permitted to 
speak, and I must refer to one who, though still in 
life, reposes now in the domestic bliss of home, but 
who was ever the friend, tried and true, of this Depart- 
ment ; who especially increased and fostered our fund, 
and who did efficient service alike in the ranks and in 
command. The name of David Smart should ever be 
a grateful one in our midst, for he was once the hus- 
band of our widows and the father of our orphans. 

And now, brother Firemen, the present is with us. 
This Hall, with its lofty walls and fair proportions, is 
yours. It stands a monument of the gratitude and 
liberality of your fellow citizens, and a pledge accepted 



90 ADDRESS, DELIVERED BEFORE THE 

by you of fidelity and good conduct. From this lofty 
eminence you can look back through the trials and the 
anxieties through which you have passed, and feel 
deeply impressed with the duties and the obligations 
which come down to you. The past is at least secure, 
and the future is even now unfolding her portals to 
you. 

This beautiful Hall, an honor to this city and the 
pride of this Department, has already done good ser- 
vice. Here have been held your annual meetings; 
here have you taken good counsel together; here have 
the light dance and the lighter heart kept gay time ; 
here "have the lamps shone over fair women and 
brave men;" here has the canvass exhibited the glow- 
ing colors of the artist's pencil, and here has music 
gushed and quivered on a thousand hearts, which beat 
happily at its magic swells. And here, too, have our 
beloved dead been brought to receive our last tribute 
of respect, ere carried to the silent grave. 

The good which the friends of this Department so 
fondly hope will flow from this enterprise, must not be 
expected to develope itself at once. Much — very much 
has been accomplished ; much yet remains to do. The 
debt which at present absorbs the receipts, will in due 
time be discharged, and then will begin to be seen and 
felt the benefits, which will soon vindicate the wisdom 
of the project. But until then, let not those impatient 



FIEE DEPARTMENT OF DETROIT. 91 

at the delay despond of the final consummation of their 
hopes. The enterprise was not small or easily to be 
perfected. The success which has crowned it, has 
been wonderful, and the day is not distant, when the 
fondest wishes of its friends will be gratified, if the 
members of this Department prove true to themselves 
and it, and strive with zeal and judgment to promote 
the common welfare. 

Friends and brethren, the future with its smiles and 
tears, its sunshine and its storms, with all its dread 
and untried realities is before us. It is not for mortal 
hand to lift the vail, nor for mortal eye to gaze into 
the secrets of unborn time. It is not for us to foretell 
its events, or to control its destiny; but, under the 
providence of a good God, we may to a very consider- 
able extent hew and fashion it as we -will. If the 
Firemen of this city should grow unmindful of law 
and order, lose the unselfish spirit of their voluntary 
organization, become careless of the regard of their 
fellow citizens, grow cold and unkind to each other, 
and regardless of the objects, the prosperity and happi- 
ness of this Department, it is easily to be seen that 
its future will come down upon us so dark and dreary, 
that not a single star or angel's smile will light up our 
pathway. 

But this should not, must not be the future of this 
Department. It is freighted with too many hopes, it 



92 ADDRESS, DELIVERED BEFORE THE 

is fraught with too many blessings, it is guarded by too 
many gallant spirits to meet with such a wreck and ruin. 
All men cannot achieve equal greatness. It is not 
for every one to be first in the forum or the field. It 
is not for every one to write his name on the scroll of 
immortal fame. It may not be for us to make the 
canvass glow with a master's hand ; to sweep the lyre 
till its lofty notes seem to echo back the joy of heaven; 
to chisel the cold marble into almost breathing life; 
to count the planets which flash their light down upon 
us from the upper worlds ; or to hold communion with 
the arcana of nature. We may never grow rich, either 
in fortune or in fame ; but I will tell you what each 
and every one can do. You can keep faith with your 
duty; you can do your best in whatever position you 
are placed; you can cherish and foster a spirit of 
friendship with each other, until the link which binds 
you, shall glisten and burn brighter and more lustrous 
with the growing years; you can watch over this De- 
partment with a careful eye and fond heart ; you can 
promote its great objects and spread its great benefits, 
until the lone face of the widow grows radiant with 
gladness, and the orphan's heritage of tears is solaced 
with joy ; you can cultivate the habits of morality and 
a fondness for intellectual pursuits, until you make this 
Hall the cradle and the home of benevolence and 
knowledge, achieving and illustrating the great objects 



FIRE DEPARTMENT OF DETROIT. 93 

of its creation. The treasures of knowledge are open 
to your grasp. The field is broad and ample. It is 
occupied in part with honor and usefulness by the 
Young Men's Society of this city, to which we pur- 
pose no rivalry, and who will, I know, gladly welcome 
us onward in our humble attempts. If you once make 
a fair beginning in intellectual pursuits, there is but 
little danger of growing wearied thereafter. As phi- 
losophy and science and history unfold their pages of 
information and interest to you ; you will grow fonder 
and fonder of the pursuit, until reading becomes a ne- 
cessity, and you will only sigh to think of wasted hours 
forever lost. Your books will become to you health in 
sickness, society in solitude, wealth in poverty. 

Speaking of the immortality of the intellectual prin- 
ciple, the eloquent historian and critic Macaulay says : 
li The Dervis in the Arabian tale did not hesitate to 
abandon to his comrade the camels with their load of 
jewels and gold, while he retained the casket of that 
mysterious jewel which enabled him at one glance to 
behold the hidden riches of the universe. Surely, it 
is no exaggeration to say, that no external advantage 
is to be compared with that purification of the intel- 
lectual eye, which gives us to contemplate the infinite 
wealth of the mental world, all the hoarded treasures 
of the primeval dynasties, all the shapeless ore of its 
yet unexplored mines. This is the gift of Athens to 



94 ADDRESS, DELP7ERED BEFORE THE 

man. Her freedom and her power have for more than 
twenty centuries been annihilated; her people have 
degenerated into timid slaves, her language into a bar- 
barous jargon ; her temples have been given up to the 
successive depredations of Romans, Turks and Scotch- 
men ; but her intellectual empire is imperishable. And 
when those that have rivalled her greatness, shall have 
shared her fate ; when civilization and knowledge shall 
have fixed her abode in distant continents ; when the 
sceptre shall have passed away from England ; when 
perhaps travellers from distant regions shall in vain 
labor to decipher on some mouldering pedestal the name 
of our proudest chief; shall hear savage hymns chanted 
to some misshapen idol over the ruined dome of our 
proudest temple, and shall see a single naked fisher- 
man wash his nets in the river of the ten thousand 
masts, her influence and her glory will still survive, 
immortal as the intellectual principle from which they 
derived their origin, and over which they exercise 
their control." 

It is true that the members of this Department are 
chiefly engaged in the active and industrial pursuits 
of life ; that they cannot command the ample leisure 
and opportunities which are lavished around the fa- 
vorite children of fortune; that the exhausting labor 
of the day makes weary nature ready for repose ; and 
that the toils and wants of daily life would not seem 



FIEE DEPARTMENT OF DETROIT. 95 

well fitted for the cultivation of the human mind. 
And yet, how much time is idly thrown away even 
by you? How many hours which might be improved, 
which might be made to return a rich harvest of honor, 
usefulness and consolation, are permitted to run to 
waste, or used for gratifications which will never yield 
aught but sorrow? Who is there amongst us who 
could not by the morn's early light or the lamp's lone- 
ly glimmer find time for study? Let each one answer, 
and answer for himself. And I repeat, form but the 
habit of mental cultivation, let the priceless treasures 
of knowledge begin to be acquired, and the mind will 
expand, grow elevated and purified, and the works of 
taste, of eloquence, of knowledge and of fancy, which 
now enrich the world, which now to us are as sealed 
books, will throw their bloom and sweetness over our 
lives — we will gladly drink from the pure fountain 
and linger near the shrine, where the relics of learning 
and genius repose. 

It would be a grateful task, did time only permit, 
to point out the names of those who amid every dis- 
couragement have achieved greatness for themselves ; 
who, born to no fortune, endowed with no patronage, 
the children of poverty and heirs of toil, have struggled 
through obscurity, undergone the stern ordeal of ad- 
verse fortune, and winged their way upward and on- 
ward, while a world gazed on their flight. It would 



ADDRESS, DELP7EEED BEFORE THE 



be a cheering encouragement to the doubting and 
desponding, did they know how many of those, whose 
thoughts and words and songs have illumined the 
earth, sprung from no lofty origin, but were encom- 
passed by misfortunes and gloom, by difficulties and 
privations, far beyond those which are incident to any 
of us. But they w orked ; they devoted themselves to 
the great task before them ; they spurned every temp- 
tation ; their souls were lighted up with celestial fire ; 
the cry of excelsior was on their lips, and spite of 
poverty and difficulty, the reward of their devotion 
came at last, and their names became watchwords to 
the earth. 

Ere long the income of this Department will enable 
us not only to execute the benevolent principles of its 
design, but will also enable us to establish a reading 
room, and found a library. When this is done, we 
hope to see it thronged by its members. We hope to 
see the Hall the centre of their attraction, and it the 
home of knowledge, benevolence and friendship. 

Gentlemen, if you go forth re-dedicated to the per- 
formance of your high duties ; if you will be brave and 
steadfast in the field ; if you will keep your hearts true, 
warm and benevolent ; if you will avoid every viola- 
tion of law and order; if you will assiduously cultivate 
your intellectual and moral natures; if you will go 
forth animated by an elevated and stern determination 



FIRE DEPARTMENT OF DETROIT. 97 

to keep your feet in the path of rectitude, and your 
hopes and visions fixed on the better world, it requires 
no Sybil's voice to tell the future of this Department. 
It will stand glistening like a star above the waters ; 
it will increase in honor and usefulness, reflecting back 
the brightening virtues of its members. 

And you, so living, shall gain the applause and re- 
spect of your fellow citizens ; you will be surrounded 
by the blessings and the prayers of the widow and the 
orphan ; when death comes, you will still live in the 
recollection of your comrades, and around your graves 
hope, fadeless and eternal, shall encircle as with a halo 
from heaven. 



EXTRACTS 

FROM THE ARGUMENT OP 

HON. JAMES A. VAN DYKE, 

One of tlie Counsel for tlie People in tlie great Railroad Conspiracy 
Case, tried in the City of Detroit before His Hon. Warner Wing, 
Presiding Judge of tlie Circuit Court for the County of Wayne, 
at the May Term, 1851. 

[The argument occupies one hundred and thirty-two closely printed pages, 
and to be fully appreciated, should be read entire ; but the following extracts 
are selected as showing his general style of eloquence and the fairness which 
characterized all his efforts of this kind.] 



Tuesday, September 15, 1851, 8 A. M. 

James A. Van Dyke, Esq., Counsel for the Prosecu- 
tion, addressed the Jury as follows: 

May it please the Court and Gentlemen of the Jury : 
I cannot refrain from congratulating you that the long 
and wearisome investigation in which you are engaged, 
is so near to its close. Many months since, before the 
leaves were green or the flowers had bloomed, ere the 
spring-time had departed, and while our hopes and 
feelings moved in sympathy with the gladdening 
freshness which the season shed around us, you were 
summoned from your homes, comforts, business and 

LoFC. 



100 EXTRACTS FROM THE ARGUMENT OF 

pleasures, to assume a serious responsibility, in aid of 
the administration of justice. Since then, while we 
have associated together, and day by day discharged, 
I trust with patience and fidelity, our toilsome, but 
solemn duties, time has run its ceaseless course; the 
summer came with all its joy and brightness ; it, too, 
has faded away, and already the crimson leaves of the 
forest warn us that autumn is passing its withering 
fingers over the face of nature. 

I indulge in this thought, because it induces the 
mind to reflect upon our own condition, and the vanity 
of acting otherwise than under a deep sense of duty. 
Most of us have reached the middle age ; our spring 
time has departed, our summer has almost left us, our 
autumn is nigh, and ere long the descending snows of 
winter will fall upon our heads. All things teach the 
dread truth that "life is fleeting," and that we should 
move through its mazy paths of cares and pleasures, 
with hope and vision fixed on the eternity which lies 
beyond. 

In this case, gentlemen, we have each a solemn 
duty to perform; let us discharge it with a high sense 
of the responsibility which rests upon us. 

In the views which I am about to submit to you, I 
will earnestly endeavor to treat this cause with the seri- 
ousness its importance demands, and with the candor 
and fairness due to you and to the Court. 



HON. JAMES A. VAN DYKE. 101 

While I feel pleased in beholding the laurels which 
this trial has entwined around other brows, I will seek 
to gather none for my own. I will neither wander 
into the paths of fancy, nor address myself to those 
who sit without the jury box. I will remember, how- 
ever dull it may render me, that my duty confines me 
to this cause ; I will speak only of it and address my- 
self only to you. I will pass over the case, gentlemen, 
as nearly as possible in the -same order which has been 
pursued by the distinguished counsel who last addressed 
you for the defence. I shall not seek or hope to leave 
the impress of oratorical power upon your imagination, 
but trust, ere I conclude, to convince your reason, that 
every point urged by the defence is fallacious and with- 
out foundation in the facts and evidence before you. 

*7v *TT TV 1 TV" TV "A* -TV'TV* 

Gentlemen of the Jury, while in some respects I 
rejoice, in others I regret that we are here to-day. I 
rejoice that, although during the long period we have 
spent together, death has swept away some connected 
with this trial — that although disease has at times 
visited you or your families, yet that God in his pro- 
vidence has, amid your prolonged and arduous cares, 
preserved you in health and vigor to discharge the 
high duty you owe to them and your country. I am 
glad that we can here apply our minds to the calm 
investigation of truth ; that while the Sun of Heaven 



102 EXTRACTS FROM THE ARGUMENT OF 

lights up our beloved city, and sheds its radiance upon 
the fields and forests and beautiful river within our 
vision, we can sit free from the excitements of life, and 
with an eye single to the ends of law and justice, and 
devote our best energies to the necessary, though la- 
borious task of a fair and candid examination of the 
mass of evidence which has accumulated in this cause. 
I regret, on your account, that the responsibility of a 
decision has fallen upon you, and for myself, that it 
has devolved upon me to say ought about these un- 
fortunate prisoners ; yet they are duties that may not 
be passed by or put aside. That you will discharge 
your duty in justice, though tempered with mercy, I 
have no doubt. I would, gentlemen, that I could per- 
form mine as well. You must expect from me, gentle- 
men, no eloquent declamations, for I will frame no 
dazzling theories upon a misrepresentation or perver- 
sion of the testimony, whether accidental or designed. 
I will not weave a single wreath of fancy, but will 
seek to bind your minds and my own to the plain and 
unadorned truths that are apparent in this case, and 
which alone should influence you. Although I have 
to follow in the wake of elaborately prepared and 
eloquent speeches, I will not seek to emulate them. 
I will neither quote Latin, or decorate my periods by 
selections from the classic pages of Addison ; nor will 
I follow the counsel through his terrible philippic upon 



HON. JAMES A. VAN DYKE. 103 

the leading witness of the prosecution, which I fear 
lost much of its force upon minds familiar with the 
strangely similar portraiture of Junius, drawn in the 
"Vision of Judgment." But while I refrain from pur- 
suing the meteoric fancies, eloquent philippics and 
sublime apostrophes to the " sainted dead," which have 
shed a false, though brilliant light upon the dark details 
of crime revealed to you day by day, I will go through 
the case fairly and discuss it fully. I will nothing ex- 
tenuate, nor aught set down in malice. I will base 
my arguments upon the testimony, not as I would have 
it, but as it is. I will speak not to the world, but to 
you, who can correct and hold me in judgment, if I 
fail to redeem the promises of fairness and candor 
which I make. Heaven can witness for me that I 
desire no fame at the expense of these unfortunate 
men. 1 will use no bitter words; I will affect no 
bitter loathing; I will assail neither man, woman or 
child, except under the urgent pressure of duty and 
necessity. I wish I could be spared the painful task 
of doing so at all. During our labors, death has visited 
some of those who awaited your judgment— it is to be 
regretted. By none was it more lamented than by 
myself and the gentlemen associated with mej for the 
prosecution. I hoped that respect for the inscrutable 
decrees of Providence would have sealed all lips upon 
that sad occurrence. If it had rested with the prose- 



104 EXTEACTS FROM THE ARGUMENT OF 

cution, the dead, however guilty, would have been 
suffered to slumber in silence. Neither you nor I could 
close our eyes to the solemn fact that, " those who were, 
are not." Death was in our midst, and though silence 
might vail its horrors, like the skeleton at the Egyptian 
feast, its unseen presence was felt by all. But for no 
purpose, for no end, not even to convict the guilty, 
would the prosecution have invaded the tomb and 
dragged the image of its lifeless tenant before you, 
either for unseemly invective, or scarcely less seemly 
panegyric. The counsel for defendants have judged 
otherwise ; it has seemed to them wise and proper to 
tear aside the vail that divides the living from the 
dead, and to invoke the "sainted spirit" of the leader 
of these defendants — a phantom, gentlemen, that I 
know will fail in the design of frightening you from 
your propriety, but the invocation of which entails on 
me, in certain portions of my argument, the painful 
duty of speaking of the dead and their deeds, in terms 
which I would fain use only of the living. It would 
be unseemly to seek occasion to probe the deeds and 
motives of those who are no longer of this world, but 
it would be criminal weakness to shrink from the task 
when duty demands its performance. 

Much, far too much, has been said to you, gentlemen, 
about excitement. However pleasing and eloquent all 
this may have been, like too many of the arguments 



HON. JAMES A. VAN DYKE. 105 

urged upon you, they "will not bide the test." Ex- 
citement! where is it gentlemen? Surely not here. 
Whom does it influence? Surely not you. Examine 
this "excitement," upon which such impassioned ap- 
peals have been made. What is it? Four months 
since, thirty or forty men, charged with atrocious 
crimes, were arrested and brought to our city. The 
crime with which they stood charged, was one that 
touched us nearly. It had threatened to reduce our 
young and beauteous city to a mass of black and 
smouldering ashes, and to entomb in its ruins proper- 
ties that were the reward of long and ceaseless toil. 
Charged with this fearful crime, they came among us 
in irons, and surrounded by every moral evidence of 
guilt. It was natural that for a time the public pulse 
should beat the quicker, and so it did, but there was 
no attempt at violence ; there was no desire that the 
accused should meet ought but a fair and impartial 
trial, and almost before they were lodged in our jail, 
the excitement their arrival created was again hushed, 
and the pulse of our peaceful and law-abiding city 
again beat with its wonted tranquility; and as you 
well know, during the greater portion of this trial, but 
for the crowd of witnesses, the little room in which 
we pursued our investigations, would not have been 
one-third full. Excitement! Among whom? Where 
in two hours a Jury was tried and empanneled, each 



106 EXTRACTS FROM THE ARGUMENT OF 

member of it a resident of this city— this hot-bed of 
excitement — and each member of it equally acceptable 
to the prosecution and the prisoners. Dangerous ex- 
citement! It is a foul, and though I love not harsh 
words, a false stigma upon our city. Where could 
these prisoners have had a fairer trial or more indul- 
gence extended to them? Where else in a city rilled 
with able counsel, unengaged by the government, 
would the prosecution have delayed the trial, at great 
sacrifice, merely that counsel might be procured for 
prisoners from a distance of hundreds of miles? Where 
before has such freedom of defence been suffered? 
Where before have the rules of law been waived by 
the prosecution, that the defence might introduce all 
that could be found to militate against the character 
of an important witness? In what other instance has 
counsel for defence, without check or interruption, 
been suffered, in an address to the jury, to comment 
upon testimony stricken from the case, to travel over 
the history of the country, and read unsworn letters 
as evidence? In the whole range of criminal reports 
no case can be found in which such liberal indulgence 
has been extended in aid of the defence of prisoners. 

Much has been said to you about public opinion; 
but what have you or I to do with it? It cannot, and 
it should not, influence us. The streets may be filled 
with rumors and conjectures ; but we are not in the 



HON. JAMES A. VAN DYKE. 



107 



streets, and such things float past us unregarded. We 
are in a building, for the present at least, consecrated 
to the administration of justice; we are gathered at 
its shrine — if not a holy, a solemn one — • and excite- 
ment and public opinion should both be banished from 
the elements that surround it. If strong public opinion 
exists, it is not the creation of the prosecution, and it 
is unjust, by implication or otherwise, to charge it 
upon us. If the city Press, for a time, published news 
in connection with this trial, that it deemed important 
to the public, it has long ceased to do so. If this 
much-talked-of public opinion exists, who made it? 
Not the prosecution; its lips have been uniformly 
closed by a sense of propriety. And I would ask those 
who address such language to you, have the prosecu- 
ting counsel run through the streets, pledging their 
honors to the innocence or guilt of the prisoners'? 
Have they sought, day after day, to raise an influence 
that might be brought to bear upon your deliberations? 
Have they sown distrust broadcast in the community, 
or gathered public meetings for the purpose of denoun- 
cing these judicial proceedings? Have they got up 
death-bed scenes to affect the imagination of women 
and children; for I presume they were scarcely de- 
signed to influence men? Have they published ser* 
mons of doubtful morality and perverted taste, for dis- 
tribution, with reports of supervisors, comments of the 



108 EXTRACTS FROM THE ARGUMENT OF 

Press, and fancy scenes by youthful and ardent counsel 
annexed? Have they done aught but their duty, or 
done that aught but fairly? Have they passed through 
the streets, stating that they knew, and could wager, 
that certain of the jury, they might name, would never 
agree to convict? No, gentlemen, the prosecution do 
no such things, and " laugh to scorn" those who do. 
They know you; they have faith in your intelligence 
and integrity, and await with patience and respect the 
result of your judgment. They know you, and despise 
the childish weakness which seeks, by such shallow 
courses, to "turn awry" the even justice of your de- 
liberations. 

We are here to seek your verdict by no such means ; 
we are here to discuss testimony, and, aided by lights 
of past ages and the wisdom and experience of our 
respected judge, to separate truth from falsehood. You 
have heard this testimony; you have listened to it 
with unwearying patience; you will soon retire, "the 
world forgetting," though not by it forgot, with your 
responsibilities gathered upon yourselves, to make up 
your verdict according to that law which has been 
well styled "the perfection of human reason," and 
which, however eloquently it may be assailed, even by 
its own disciples who serve and minister at its shrine, 
bears, stamped upon its venerable front, the sanction of 
ages, of sages and of worlds — willing, if you can, to 



HON. JAMES A. VAN DYKE. 109 

acquit these men; but ready, also, if your judgment 
and the law direct it, to find them guilty. 

********** 

Again and again you are told that death has visited 
and thinned the ranks of these unfortunate men, and 
the corse and its shroud are seized upon as fit pictures 
to disturb your visions, in the hope apparently of mak- 
ing you shudder as you gaze. And because Providence 
has deemed it fit to remove two of these defendants, 
shall we be told, in deliberate argument, that you are 
therefrom to infer the innocence of those who are left'? 
Is such to be the basis of a solemn verdict? 

Permit me to ask you, gentlemen, what have you 
to do with death-bed scenes, false in fact, morbid in 
taste, and wholly irrelevant to this issue 1 You will, 
I am sure, entirely dismiss from your imaginations, 
these ghostly fancies which your good sense has doubt- 
less prevented from finding lodgment in your minds. 

But the picture is a fancied scene, destitute even of 
the merit of simple truth. The dying words, which 
are now so sought to be perverted, were in fact of far 
different import ; and were flung off from a fevered 
brain, amid the fearful delirium of deathly colapse, and 
let me say, dressed up as they now are, they would 
meet from the deceased, could he hear them, no sign 
of recognition — naught but the smile of derision. 
They might serve to adorn the page of some yellow 



110 • EXTRACTS FROM THE ARGUMENT OF 

covered novel— they have served to grace two elegant 
perorations, but they scarcely seem appropriate in the 
argument of a trial of such magnitude and importance. 
I regret that the last delirious moments of the dead 
should be the subject of public comment; but as coun- 
sel on the other side have thought otherwise, it is my 
duty to follow them with the truth, and it will be the 
duty of the Court to tell you to banish them from 
your minds, if perchance they linger there. 

Gentlemen, you have been gravely told, that " you 
stand between the living and the dead;" that "the 
lightest error in your finding will prove a source of 
constant remorse;" that "the thought should make 
you tremble." If this indeed be true, you may well 
tremble. Uncertainty and imperfection are stamped 
upon earth, and upon man, its choicest production, 
and upon his proudest efforts. Feeble man talking of 
certainty ! His loftiest fabrics crumble beneath the 
step of time; or are crushed or scattered before an 
hour's breath. His cultivated intellect, his glowing 
mind, lie shattered and quenched in a moment's space. 
No, gentlemen, no such fearful responsibility rests on 
you; no such unerring certainty is required of you; 
and he who seeks to grasp or attain such perfection, 
will only realize how 

" Vaunting ambition doth o'er leap itself." 

Neither reason, law or sense requires from you the 



HOtf. JAMES A. VAN DYKE. 



Ill 



exercise of superhuman attributes. You are bound to 
exercise caution, care, and deliberation ; to weigh the 
evidence with your best judgment; to sift it with your 
keenest penetration; and having done this, to state 
honestly the convictions of your minds — no more and 
no less. 

*7V" TV- "Jf- -TV- "Tf- TT *7V i -7T- *J£ »RF 

What has been the history of the road while in the 
hands of the State? For years it dragged its slow 
length along; an encumbrance and a burthen. The 
State needed engines, cars, depots — every material to 
prosecute or sustain with energy or profit, this import- 
ant work ; but its credit was gone, and it was immersed 
in debt. Our population was thinly scattered across 
the entire breadth of the Peninsula. Engines dragged 
slowly and heavily through the dense forests. Our 
city numbered but 12,000 people ; our State was des- 
titute of wealth ; our farmers destitute of markets ; our 
laborers destitute of employment ; and so far as the 
interests of the State and her people were identified 
with the Railroad, it presented a joyless present, a 
dark and frowning future. 

In a fortunate hour, the State sold the road, and 
the millions of this denounced Company were flung 
broadcast through our community ; they took up the 
old track, relaid a better one, extended the road to the 
extreme line of the State, laid down at enormous cost, 



112 EXTRACTS FROM THE ARGUMENT OF 

over 400 miles of fences to guard the property of all, 
save those who wanted a fyeef market at each crossing ; 
multiplied the accommodation seven-fold, quadrupled 
the speed, increased traffic and commerce, so that 
while in 1845, the State passed 26,000 tons over the 
road ; in 1850 the Company passed 134,000 tons ; 
created markets for our products, snatched the tide of 
passing emigration from the hands of a steamboat 
monopoly, hostile to Michigan, and threw it unto the 
heart of our State, until now, where heaven's light was 
once shut out by dense forests, *it shines over fertile 
fields, and rich, luxurient harvests, and the rivers of 
our State, which once ran with wasteful speed to the 
bosom of the Lakes, turns the machinery which ren- 
ders our rich products available. With them, Capital 
made its home amongst us ; our credit was restored ; 
hope and energy sprung from their lethargic sleep; 
labor clapped her glad hands and shouted for joy ; and 
Michigan bent for the moment, like a sappling by the 
fierceness of a passing tempest; relieved from the 
debts and burthens, rose erect, and in her youthful 
strength, stood proudly up among her sister States. 

Who shall stop this glorious work, which is spreading 
blessings and prosperity around us ? Who shall dare 
to say, "• thus far shalt thou go and no farther? Who 
shall dictate to it after doing so much ? Must it now 
pause and rest in inglorious ease ? No, gentlemen, it 



HON. JAMES A. VAN DYKE. 113 

shall not be stayed ; it shall speed onward in triumph ; 
it shall add link after link to the great chain that 
binds mankind together; it shall speed onward, still 
onward, through the gorges of the mountain, over 
the depths of the valley, till the iron horse, whose 
bowels are fire, "out of whose nostrils goeth forth 
smoke,'' and " whose breath kindleth coals,' 7 shall be 
heard thundering through the echoing solitudes of the 
Rocky Mountains, startling the lone Indian from his 
wild retreat, and ere long reaching the golden shores 
of the far off Pacific, there to be welcomed by the glad 
shouts of American freemen at the glorious event 
which has conquered time and distance, and bound 
them by nearer chords to older homes and sister States. 
A detestable monopoly ! These railroads, built by 
united energies and capital, are the great instruments 
in the hand of God to hasten onward the glorious mis- 
sion of religion, and civilization. Already is our 
Central Road stretching forth its hands, and giving 
assurance that soon shall its iron track reach across 
the neighboring Provinces from Detroit to Niagara ; 
and that ere long the scream of the locomotive shall 
be heard over the sound of the cataract, which shall 
thunder forth in deafening peals, that glorious event. 
Our brethren on the shores of the Atlantic, with whom 
we are bound by every interest, association and affec- 
tion, will hail the shortened tie with ardent welcome. 



114 EXTRACTS FROM THE ARGUMENT OF 

Beneath the beneficial influence of companies like 
this, space is annihilated, weeks are reduced to the 
compass of days, and in spite of the wicked purposes 
of bad men, this and kindred companies shall continue 
to spread and contribute to the greatness and pros- 
perity of our country, until the earth vibrates with the 
pulses of her glory. 

>ai> jf. iu m* Jiu db 4u ^fr »sfe 3fe 

What ! are we, in this law-abiding and loyal State, 
to have it thundered in the ears of jurors, in the sanc- 
tity of a court-house, and in the course of judicial pro- 
ceedings, from the lips of any man, that if a verdict is 
not satisfactory to the people, another " inquisition 
will be holden, and the victims of the law be dragged 
from the bloody fingers of power ?" Do I overstate it? 
No, I know you recollect it. I saw and felt, and 
sympathized with you, in the shudder which marked 
your feelings as that and kindred sentences fell upon 
your astonished ears. I forgot I was here, and was 
carried for a moment to some heated tribune of Paris, 
where some spirit of fierceness was maddening the 
populace and stirring up France to again 

" Get drunk with blood to vomit crime." 

Ah ! gentlemen, there is a worse evil abroad through 
this land, than the overshadowing power of corpora- 
tions. There are isms of dreadful and fearful import 
around us. They " menace our public institutions and 



HON - . JAMES A. VAN DYKE. 115 

private rights." There is a spirit of disloyalty to law 
and country ; a tendency to forsake the old landmarks ; 
to treat the lessons of sages which come down from 
our fathers, as antiquated and worn-out; to speak 
lightly of our hallowed Union ; to abandon those pure, 
steadfast, and perpetual principles which have sancti- 
fied our past, and which can alone save our future ; 
and to rear and plant in their stead a " higher law" 
which each one for himself may adjudge and admin- 
ister. 

Hence come those frightful dangers which disturb 
our courts ; that voice of evil omen which would fain 
chaunt the hymn of ruin over the broken fragments 
of our capitol ; which would raise the arm of private 
judgment against the enactments of the law-makers ; 
and rouse an excited populace to sit in judgment on 
the decisions of courts and the verdicts of juries. 

Gentlemen, it is an evil day, when the men of our 
high places are found scattering such seed in congenial 
soil. Where, if such is to be the course of things, are 
we to stop ? There would be an end of law, and con- 
fusion and ruin would stalk with fearful strides over 
our land. We enforce not the law here by the bayonet. 
It is the law of the people, administered by forms pre- 
scribed ; and the beautiful sight is exhibited of the 
people of a whole empire bowing in silent respect and 
cheerful obedience to the adjudications of their own 



116 EXTRACTS FEOM THE AEGTJMENT OF 

courts and the verdicts of their own juries. And well 
may we do so. For what would we be without that 
law and cheerful obedience to it ? What and where 
would we be if a community, or any portion of it, could 
or dare rise up, in violence or lawlessness, and crush 
or disturb the solemn awards of legal tribunals ? What 
and how shall we characterize the spirit which would 
invite us to such a dread feast ? 

Gentlemen, all you possess on earth, is the reward 
of labor protected by law. It is law alone which keeps 
all things in order, guards the sleep of infancy, the 
energy of manhood, and the weakness of age. It 
hovers over us by day ; it keeps watch and ward over 
the slumbers of the night ; it goes with us over the 
land, and guides and guards us through the trackless 
paths of the mighty waters. The high and the low, 
each are within its view, and beneath its ample folds. 
It protects beauty and virtue, punishes crime and 
wickedness, and vindicates right. Honor and life, and 
liberty, and property, the wide world over, are its high 
objects. Stern, yet kind ; pure, yet pitying ; steadfast, 
immutable and just; it is the attribute of God on earth. 
It proceeds from his bosom, and encircles the world 
with its care and power and blessings. All honor and 
praise to those who administer it in purity, and who 
reverence its high behests. 

When our own respected, eloquent, and classic 






HON. JAMES A. VAN HYKE, 117 

citizen Senator, was desired to choose a motto and 
design for the coat of arms of that State, with which 
he is so identified, and by it so appreciated, most happy 
was he in that choice. We find it stamped, and 
reading, when rendered, thus: "If you seek a beauti- 
ful peninsula look around you." And we see, as part 
of the design, the sun of civilization rising from the 
waters, and commerce and agriculture quickening into 
life beneath its genial rays. And the lone Indian is 
there too, standing in sadness, seeing the elements 
advancing and gathering, which tell him the doom of 
his race, and before which he must again retreat to 
roam the western wilds. 

And a beautiful peninsula it is ! Its shores bathed 
and almost circled by the majestic lakes which now 
are convulsed with storm, and anon flash back the 
serene light of heaven, as if from a million of mirrors. 
Its prairies blooming with beauty, and uttering sweet 
whisperings to the light wind as it breathes among its 
flowers; its fields yellow with luxurient harvests; 
its youth cultivated ; its people moral, contented and 
happy ; and all reposing beneath the reign of law and 
order. But change the scene ! Let law be disre- 
garded, and her ministers brought to contempt; let 
confusion and disobedience characterize her people, 
and the clouds of darkness and disgrace will soon 
gather over our land. Frantic passion will produce 



118 EXTRACTS FROM THE ARGUMENT OP 

ruthless violence; bad men will revel and rejoice; the 
good will sigh and depart. Better, than that this should 
come to pass, would it be that the forest and primeval 
silence should return again. But it is useless to anti- 
cipate such evil things. Such invocations to our peo- 
ple, fall on unwelcoming ears. They may suit some 
foreign district, some land where anti-rent and anti-law 
make part of her history; but cannot and will not 
corrupt the law-loving and law-respecting people of 
Michigan. He who expects to read, on the columns 
of her greatness, words of disloyalty to the Union or 
disrespect to law, may seek for them in vain, until he 
himself sinks into the abyss of time. 

I regret, gentlemen, to have thus to leave the strict 
merits of the case, to follow and comment on the ex- 
traneous, and to my judgment most dangerous, remarks 
of counsel, and will now return to what is more in 
point. 

m. k|k Ub *i£. sU* 4£* i4fr *4b •it- M* 

~fr rfc *f£ *fr *K- *7v- •??■ t"E- *flr -fF 

Gentlemen, I feel the solemnity and importance of 
the place and the hour. The long months which we 
have been in this Court House, are dwindled down to 
a span. A narrow space intervenes between us and 
the long looked for end. I need not say how impor- 
tant it is for these prisoners— solitude or society, liberty 
or bondage tremble within the fleeting moments, and 
it makes me sad to feel and believe, as I do, that the 



HON. JAMES A. VAN DYKE. 119 

dark shadows of the prison house are already gather- 
ing around them. But, gentlemen, there is an import- 
ance beyond the fate of these prisoners and the limits 
of this court room. This cause has spread through the 
confines of our State and beyond its limits, and a world 
is looking on to see if there is here strength and virtue 
sufficient to assert the integrity of the law. 

The dignity, the honor and the character of Michi- 
gan are in your keeping. I feel proud and secure in 
knowing them there. I feel assured that, when the 
future historian makes out the record of our past, and 
the pencil of truth writes down the dark details of 
lawless violence and banded crime, which stain our 
annals and blacken our fame, there shall be written 
beneath it in living light, these words which will illu- 
minate the darkness and remove the stigma: "A firm 
and able judge, an intelligent and honest jury, unawed 
by fear and prejudice, and unawed by threats, vindi- 
cated the violated law." 

We are called upon by every high consideration 
which can induce action, to do our duty in this case. 
Gratitude for the lovely heritage God has given us ; 
patriotism ; love for the beautiful peninsula, in which 
is fixed our destiny and centred our all of earthly good 
and hope ; the desire we have for her future prosperity 
and illustrious career, all unite in one voice, and ask 
that you be firm, free and steadfast on this occasion. 



120 EXTRACTS FROM THE ARGUMENT OF 

For, if these dangerous doctrines which produce the 
outrages we are considering, are to be spread from the 
hamlets of Leoni throughout the breadth of the land, 
and even to the jury box of our courts ; if men, ani- 
mated by deep hate against a corporation, feel and 
think that they are justified in redressing their own 
real or fancied wrongs in their own way; if courts are 
to be scouted at, law trampled on, order rushed into 
wild confusion, and crime sympathized with and left 
to stalk unpunished, then indeed, have evil days come 
upon us. Capital, virtue, peace and property will be 
trodden over and crushed by mob violence, and all the 
dire evils which will follow in its train. 

The first Jury which renders a verdict, tainted by 
the unhallowed spirit of fear or public opinion, or pre- 
judiced by loud clamors against monopolies and tyran- 
nical corporations, will have stricken a death blow at 
his country's honor and welfare. The first juryman 
who renders his verdict, in the midst of turmoil, ex- 
citement and prejudice, unmoved by all such elements, 
with his conscience impressed by his oath, with his 
mind calmly, but deeply imbued with the truth and 
regulated by the law, presents a moral spectacle to be 
admired, honored and forever remembered — his action 
adds to the security of the commonwealth and gives 
new guaranty of its perpetuation. 

Gentlemen, I do not intimate that there is any great 



HON. JAMES A. VAN DYKE. 121 

volume of prejudice or passion arrayed against the 
Michigan Central Railroad Company. I believe that 
the mass of our citizens regard it as a public benefit, 
a mighty source of unnumbered blessings to Michigan, 
and its superintendents and managers as liberal, just 
and honest. Be this as it may, I do know that Michi- 
gan is loyal to the Union and the laws. May she re- 
main so forever ! I would fain carve the sentiment on 
the columns of her Capitol; I would stamp it on her 
broad banner 5 I would wave it aloft, that her law- 
loving and law-abiding people might gaze on it with 
pride and pleasure, knowing and feeling that they and 
all they have or cherish, will ever find security, peace 
and happiness beneath its ample folds. 

So may it be, and if so, we will soon find the State 
of our pride leaping on to greatness like a young giant, 
glowing all over with honor, vigor and prosperity, till 
she becomes lustrious as the starlit sky. 

But, gentlemen, fraught with importance, as I deem 
this case to be to the character and welfare of Michi- 
gan, still we wish no verdict at the unjust condemna- 
tion of a single citizen. Whatever your verdict may 
be, this prosecution and a good community will and 
must be satisfied with it. All we required was a fair, 
impartial trial; that has been obtained, and whatever 
be the result, we will never murmur against it. We 
know the care and anxiety it has cost you, and the 



122 



EXTRACTS FROM THE ARGUMENT OF 



inconvenience and loss it has entailed upon you. We 
know the consciousness you have of your weighty 
responsibility, and that even now you would gladly 
pass the cup from you. But, gentlemen, the duty of a 
good citizen, if well discharged, however painful in 
the present, becomes through all after time an abiding 
source of pure pleasure. 

May I, for a moment, change this scene, take you 
to the Capitol of your Union, and turn back the tide 
of time a few short months. See there before you the 
scene of a patriot soldier's death bed! His life has 
been spent in the service of his country. His honor, 
like his own good sword, is without a stain. He once 
was exposed to the perils of this north-western frontier. 
He braved danger and death amid the everglades of 
Florida. On the terrible fields of Mexico he bore 
aloft the glorious flag of our Union, graced it with new 
triumph, and " planted fresh stars of glory there !" The 
voice of a grateful nation called him to the high place 
of our country; but here for him is the end of life. 
He has fought his last battle ; he yields to the victor, 
Death; his eye, once gleaming through the smoke of 
battles, is dim; his voice, once heard like the bugle 
over the clash and shouts of a deadly strife, can only 
whisper ; and his brave heart, which never beat with 
fear, is flickering in its last pulsations. What do we 
hear now 7 What memories of brave deeds now come 



HON. JAMES A. VAN DYKE, 123 

back to light up the gloom of the dark hour? What 
rays of earthly glory now shed their radiance to cheer 
the dying hero through his last struggle 1 Alas ! illus- 
trious though his deeds, bright though his fame, all, 
all seem quite forgotten ; but there does come whisper- 
ing to his sinking spirit a kindly thought and a sweet 
solace, and you hear it falling tremulous from his lips : 
"I have endeavored to do my duty." 

Gentlemen, may we endeavor to do our duty in this 
case, and through life, and be consoled by the reflection 
thereof in death. 

And now, though through with all I have to say, 
though happy to feel that I need no longer detain you, 
I yet linger ere taking my seat. 

We have come together so often ; we have associated 
in this cause so long; we have participated in our 
several capacities for so many months in all the ex- 
citements and incidents of this trial ; the kindly greet- 
ings of recurring morns, the familiar faces, the pleasant 
intercourse, all have flung remembrances over the past 
which now, at the moment of parting, cluster so fresh 
and warm around us, that I hesitate to end them. 

I would fain say a word of kindness to all engaged 
in this cause, but it may not be appropriate to speak 
individually of each. I feel, I may, however, with 
propriety allude to the Prosecuting Attorney of this 
County, who, before you and the people he represents, 



124 EXTRACTS FROM ARGUMENT OF HON. JAMES A. VAN DYKE. 



has discharged his trying duties with an impartiality, 
ability and fidelity, which has gained for him an en- 
viable name. 

And now for yourselves allow me to say, I cannot 
by words show my high appreciation of you and your 
services. I can only thank you warmly and truly. 
May long life and every prosperity repay you for your 
cares and sacrifices in this cause, and when the sum- 
mons comes for you to appear before the High Tribunal 
of another world, may each one of you with a conscious 
sense of duty well discharged, 

"Sustained and soothed 



By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave, 
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch 
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams. 



U= 



itociOiaci 



